Scorched Earth
by KC Polar Bear
Summary: When a nameless evil invades Earth, killing everything in its path, the first eleven Power Rangers must face an enemy beyond anything they've ever encountered; and this time, saving the planet may cost some of them their lives.
1. Collapse

**Scorched Earth**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just the right to put them through hell for my own amusement. Saban owns everything Power Rangers related. Anything you don't recognize is mine. **

**Plot Summary: When a nameless evil invades Earth, killing everything in its path, the first eleven Power Rangers must face an enemy beyond anything they've ever encountered; and this time, they'll be pushed farther than some of them are willing to go. **

**Timeline: **_**Very **_**AU from the moment Zeo started; slightly AU from the moment Jason, Zack and Trini left. Takes place midway through Zeo, only Zeo didn't happen. Jason, Trini and Zack are still attending the Peace Conference in Geneva, Kim is still in Florida training for the Pan Globals, and Aisha is still in Africa. When they left, however, their powers weren't transferred – they still have them, and five new powers were created for their replacements. Also, that whole letter thing didn't happen, either. The current team, led by Tommy, is Billy, Rocky, Adam, Kat and Tanya.**

**Pairings: Jason/Trini, Tommy/Kim, Rocky/Aisha; others may come later.**

**A/N: This story assumes that the Rangers were juniors in high school when they got their original powers, meaning they are currently in their second year of college, putting their ages at approximately 20-21.**

**Warning: Rated M for graphic violence, language, crude humor and disturbing content, including major character death. (Nothing too explicit as far as sexual content, I'll keep that PG-13.) Essentially, this is what I imagine an R-rated Power Rangers movie would've looked like. If only, right?**

* * *

**Chapter 1: "Collapse (Post-Amerika)"**

"**In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."  
****-Herodotus**

**World Youth Peace Summit: Main Campus  
****Jonas Salk Memorial Dormitory  
****Geneva, Switzerland  
****August 28, 2012  
****7:15 PM Geneva time**

"Mom, how many times do I have to tell you – nothing is going to happen!" Jason Scott shifted his cell phone from one ear to the other and squeezed it between his shoulder and his head. Shifting the small pile of books he held from one arm to the other, he shoved his now free hand into his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys. "They're sending us with six interpreters and an entire squad of trained security guards; besides, we'll only be in Cairo for a week and then Zack, Trini and I are taking the cheapest flight home." He fumbled with the keys for a moment as he rounded the corner of the bright hallway, his black dress shoes clicking softly on the tile floor as he approached a door near the end of the hall.

"Yes, Mom, like I told you three days ago, home as in Angel Grove, not home as in here, I don't consider this place home anyway… How am I supposed to know what time we'll get there? I don't make the plane schedules." As he unlocked the door and swung it open, he heard a soft beep on the other line; frowning, he dropped his books on the desk just inside the door and took his phone away from his ear, staring at it in bewilderment.

"Bitch hung up on me," he grumbled, tossing the phone onto the top bunk of one of the two sets of bunk beds that occupied either side of the cozy room he now found himself in.

"That bitch is your mother," said the slender Asian girl who sat cross-legged on the futon in the middle of the room, beneath the large window that looked out on the main campus. Trini Kwan held a plate of food on her lap; a book lay open on the empty seat beside her, a yellow highlighter holding the pages open. She leveled her gaze at Jason over her fork.

"That bitch stole my act," Jason replied, undoing his tie and starting to unbutton his dark red dress shirt. "I'm the one who always hangs up on people. The hell does she think she is?" He shot a wry smile at Trini as he pulled his arms out of his sleeves and started undoing his belt. She scoffed at him and shook her head. Jason let out a small laugh and said, "Whatever. She was just getting all worked up about that trip we're taking next week. Again. You know how she gets."

Trini smiled at him. "At least your parents care about the trip. All mine do is give me constant crap about how long it's been since we've been home."

Jason grinned again, tugging on a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a red tank top before slumping against the bed frame and sighing. "Yeah, what I wouldn't give to get out of here for a few days."

"Rough day?"

Jason rolled his eyes and strode across the room to the mini refrigerator that sat against the back wall, between his desk and the TV stand. He swung it open and leaned inside for a moment. "You have no idea. I just spent the last three hours debating the future economic viability of the European Union. Swear to god if I don't get something to drink pretty soon I'm gonna start pissing sawdust."

"And there goes my appetite," Trini said. He heard the clank of her fork against the plate as he stood and turned around, a pair of beers in his hand.

"Don't mention it," he responded cheerfully, crossing the room and plopping down on the couch beside her. He pulled a Swiss Army knife out of his pocket, flipped out the bottle opener and cracked one of the bottles open. "You probably shouldn't be eating anyway. You look a little…pudgy. I don't mind, though, I mean, you know, more of you to love."

Trini gasped and glared at Jason as he took a long swig of the beer and raised his eyebrows at her. After a moment, she set her jaw, snatched up the fork, and jabbed it angrily into the salad on her plate before thrusting it into her open mouth. She was in the midst of chewing when she noticed Jason's smirk. Groaning, Trini let her head fall back against the couch; she closed her eyes and swallowed hard. "I cannot believe I just fucking fell for that."

"I love you too." Jason laughed heartily and sipped his beer again. "Ah. The benefits of having German roommates. Beer?" He cracked the other bottle open and offered it to her; she eyed him up and down for a moment suspiciously.

"Do your roommates know you and Zack have been raiding their alcohol supply?" Trini inquired, taking the proffered beverage and taking a quick swallow. "Delicious as it is."

"Hell if I know," Jason answered, moving Trini's book out of the way and leaning closer, draping an arm around her. "Though we've been doing it for so long that if they don't know by now they probably don't deserve to be here in the first place. Hans and Franz are great and all, but I was kind of relieved when they went home for the month. They're a dragon short of a Thunder MegaZord, if you know what I mean."

"You know they hate it when you call them by those nicknames, right?" Trini asked as she leaned her head into Jason's shoulder. "They told me once when you were in the bathroom or something."

"Which is why I've put some of that politics we've been learning here to use and only said it behind their backs like a civilized human being."

"You're kind of an asshole today, you know that?"

"You would be too if you just spent three hours straight essentially talking to a wall."

Trini giggled and tilted her head back to plant a gentle kiss on Jason's lips. "You're too good for them," she muttered sarcastically. She felt his smile widen against her forehead.

"Tell me about it."

"I had something else in mind."

The two of them absently lowered their drinks to the floor as Trini turned around and nearly sat in Jason's lap. Both her arms looped around his neck as she pressed her lips against his, passionately probing his tongue with her own. Jason cupped a hand around the back of her head, taking in her warmth, her taste, gripping her tightly against him as they kissed deeply, intensely.

They stayed locked together that way for a long moment before Jason heard the soft creaking of the door swinging slowly inward; Zack Taylor poked his head into the room and opened his mouth to speak, but stopped and simply watched the two of them silently. Soon, Jason held up a finger without even opening his eyes. Zack grinned and leaned in the doorway.

Jason pulled back gently, letting Trini's lower lip catch between his teeth for a second as he went. He pressed his forehead against hers, his eyes still closed. "Babe," he whispered tenderly. "People are staring."

Trini groaned and glanced over her shoulder at Zack, who beamed at her and waved. "Oh, don't mind me," he said, placing a hand over his stomach. "Please, continue."

"Pervert," Trini said with a laugh; she reached behind her, grabbed the pillow she'd been leaning on and chucked it at him. He ducked as it sailed over his head and bounced harmlessly to the floor.

"Hey, man," Zack said, raising both hands in a gesture of surrender. "Ever since the Summit started blocking all my favorite channels I've had to take what I can get. Besides," he quickly added with a laugh in response to Trini's disgusted glare. "You want perverted, ask Jason about the dream he had about you last week."

Before Trini had even turned back to confront him about this, Jason was pointing a finger at Zack, drilling twin holes through him with a look of playful rage. "Traitor. You are so fucking dead, you have no idea…"

"Watch it, Jase, or I'll tell Trini about those fruit-flavored condoms you've been keeping in your wallet for the last month. Oh, wait. Oops."

Jason leapt to his feet, his face turning as red as his shirt. "OK, that's it buddy, next time you want someone to cover for your ass while you 'get lost' in an erotic toy store for half an hour consider yourself shit out of luck." He turned back to Trini. "Tri, it's not what you think, I…"

"What flavor are they?" Trini asked casually, picking up her beer and taking another sip. "I like watermelon."

Jason gaped at her. His mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before he took a staggering step back and leaned toward Zack, who looked just as stunned as he was. "Uh, Zack? What exactly is in those beers?"

"Don't ask me, bro, I don't read German."

Trini giggled and rose to her feet, stretching. "I win again. Damn, you two are so easy it's barely even fun anymore."

Jason visibly sagged with relief, his face slowly returning to its normal color. "We need to stop playing this game before one of us has a coronary."

"Or a certain Red Ranger gets fatally blueballed," Zack chimed in, followed by a cough that sounded suspiciously like Jason's name. This earned him a reproachful look from Trini and an amused nod from the dark-haired young man beside him. Just then, they heard pounding footsteps in the corridor followed by banging on the heavy wooden door. Jason exchanged bewildered glances with his two friends and crossed the room to open it.

"The hell is going on out there?" The boy who stood outside was familiar to him; it was a Brazilian boy named Marco that Jason had been partners with for a debate once. He was breathing hard, a layer of perspiration shining on his face. Jason saw other doors closing down the hallway and realized this kid had been knocking on every door. "Marco, what is it? _Que pasa?_" Jason asked, his voice taking on a more concerned tone.

Marco babbled in rapid fire Portuguese, his words flying straight over Jason's head. "Marco, Marco, hey, slow down," Jason said, gripping the boy's shoulder. "_En ingles, por favor._ What happened?"

Marco finally seemed to catch his breath and looked up at Jason with panic in his eyes. In heavily accented English, he said, "Turn on the TV. Turn on the news. Right now! They're coming!" Then he wrenched himself out of Jason's grip and sprinted to the next door, where he repeated his frantic knocking. Jason stepped back into his room and let the door swing shut.

"Is anyone else severely unnerved right now?" Trini asked quietly. Jason picked up the remote control from beside the TV and flipped on the news channel.

"What the hell is he on? They're just replaying that interview with that guy from the Olympics," Zack said, folding his arms over his chest.

"Try the global news channel," Trini suggested. "Channel 7."

Jason pushed a button on the remote and the image changed. Trini gasped, her hand flying up to her mouth, and flung herself at Jason, falling into his chest as he wrapped one arm around her. All three former Rangers' mouths fell open at what they saw; the remote slid free from Jason's hand and clattered to the floor. Finally, the boy in red found a voice to articulate the thought that was racing through all three of their heads.

"What. The. Fuck."

* * *

**Somewhere in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter  
****Three hours earlier**

NASA satellite _Explorer_ floated lazily through the immense blackness of space, whizzing along through untold miles of emptiness as it navigated the asteroid field. Its onboard navigational systems kept it steadily pointed toward its target in the Kuiper Belt, on the very edge of deep space; a small light on one side blinked steadily, sending constant readings back to Mission Control. If there had been air to vibrate, the tiny machine would've beeped and whirred softly as though someone had launched a household appliance into space.

As the probe made its way through the asteroid field – which was far more sparsely populated with its namesake space rocks than many were aware – a massive magnetic disturbance was picked up by one of the array of sensors it carried. The tiny satellite rotated its camera to send a picture of the source of this disturbance back to Earth.

Before the camera could even be brought into position, the probe detonated in a cloud of floating fire that quickly dissipated in the surrounding vacuum. Beyond the silent explosion, the source of the destruction approached, moving rapidly through space and puncturing the asteroid field.

Just then, in a cramped, harshly lit control room three stories underground somewhere in the United States, a Mission Control technician would notice a random spike in the readings, followed quickly by a loss of all contact. He would reach immediately for the nearest phone, frantically informing his superiors of the anomaly they'd just experienced. A few minutes later, he would examine the last readings and crease his brows in confusion. The only conclusion he could reach scared the ever loving shit out of him – _Explorer_ hadn't just blacked out, it had been destroyed by…something. The tech would drop the readout to the surface of his desk, leaning back in a cold sweat and running a shaking hand through his hair. This was insane.

Things would only get worse from there.

The interstellar armada was massive, tens of thousands of enormous, shapeless vessels looming over the assorted orbiting space debris in its wake. The fleet pushed steadily onward, its destination clear.

As the incoming flotilla continued toward its target, a fantastic array of lights flashed from the head ship; half an hour later, a few million miles away, a series of small explosions shattered the omnipresent stillness surrounding the unassuming blue and green planet. The onslaught wasn't far behind. As the ships closed the distance, the first few ripples of unease began to blossom – first communication, then Internet connection capabilities, and finally all but a scant few television stations went dark, leaving the most connected generation in history more isolated than at any time in the last century and a half. A phone call between a mother in California and her son in Switzerland was unceremoniously cut off, as were thousands of others. The world that had shrunk so quickly over the past two decades underwent a devastating growth spurt in the span of a mere few minutes. Soon, any sort of international travel would be rendered impossible; shortly after, any kind of global shipping of food, supplies, or any sort of goods would cease. Eventually, the situation would deteriorate to the point that the entire world would begin to go dark as the last of the fuel was used up or fought over. The entire human race would devolve into deeply fragmented populations of wandering savages, barbarous warriors, and marauding groups of civilians forced to remain on constant alert simply to stay alive.

And that was only if the invaders _didn't_ interfere. Unfortunately for everyone, these creatures' plan extended far beyond that first strike.

Right then, as the fleet broke apart and dozens of individual ships split off for separate destinations, encircling the planet as lions do a downed gazelle while the main group slowed to a stop near the Moon, any objective observer would've concluded that humans, generally speaking, didn't stand a chance in hell.

* * *

**World Youth Peace Summit: Main Campus  
****Jonas Salk Dormitory  
****Geneva, Switzerland  
****August 28, 2012  
****7:45 PM, Geneva time**

"Where is this coming from?" Zack demanded, pointing a shaky finger at the TV. "It looks like a big city but I don't recognize anything."

"I think they've been switching from one place to another," Jason answered, squinting at the TV. "They've been to like twelve different places now. Let me see if I can find anything online." Jason gave Trini a quick squeeze before letting go of her and moving to his desk, flipping open the laptop that lay there. After a minute he stood up and turned to his friends, his brows furrowed in concern.

"I can't get a connection. There's no WiFi signal at all, I can't even get the Ethernet line to work. Damn it, where's Billy when you need him?"

"No cell service, either," Trini mumbled to herself, staring at her cell phone. Jason spared a glance at her before turning back to the TV. The images playing out before them were astonishing. Footage from around the world showed gargantuan…things floating over skyscrapers in cities all over the world, things that might have been space ships though it was unclear due to their bizarre appearance. They were like something out of the inside of a geode – totally shapeless, a random jumble of jagged peaks, domes, sheer flat surfaces that looked as big as city blocks, and every so often something that resembled the prow of a ship. Their surface was a strange mixture of opaque black material that looked smooth enough to be glass and intensely reflective, crystalline portions that cast blinding glares into the cameras taking the film. Now Jason realized he did recognize some of the places being shown – London. Rio. Paris. Hong Kong. Two hovered over New York, one of them centered directly above the UN building. Others floated over Washington, D. C., St. Louis, Chicago.

Los Angeles.

"Any idea what the fuck those things are?" Jason asked quietly to no one in particular. "That one's only a couple hundred miles from home." Suddenly, one of the floating monoliths on the screen started to…the closest thing Jason could think of to describe it was _sparkle_. A dazzling array of flashing lights in a scope of colors so vast it included some he'd never seen before began playing out over the surface of the ship, growing steadily brighter and faster until they merged into a single flash; the ship seemed to shudder and dozens of brightly colored fireballs flew from it like bees from a hive.

"What the hell is it doing?" The question was barely out of Trini's mouth when the first of the glowing streaks collided with a building; the explosion that bloomed out from the impact sight was a brilliant shade of turquoise, the shockwave jostling the picture. The three friends watched in wide-eyed horror as a sphere of the same color radiated out from the initial explosion. It didn't seem to be made of anything tangible – it passed right through the destroyed walls of the building that had been hit and just kept right on going.

Until it found people. A small group of five or six was standing in a tight cluster in the background of the shot, gazing up at the sky and shielding their eyes from the sun. As the blue-green dome radiated out towards them, they turned and began to run back toward the camera, stumbling across the grass in their terror. The Rangers looked on awestruck as the wave caught up to them; the first person it touched was a young blonde woman who'd fallen behind, screaming desperately for her companions not to leave her. As the wave went through her, she had time to contort her face into a howl of pure agony before her body was completely disintegrated, a little at a time. One by one, the others met the same gruesome ends; until the wave reached the camera itself and the whole feed went to static.

"Anyone else having major _Independence Day_ flashbacks?" Zack asked softly, falling back onto the bottom bunk.

"Among other things," Jason replied, his arm back around Trini's shoulders. As he spoke, the room seemed to dim, like something was casting a shadow over them. Turning slowly toward the window, Jason spoke again. "Is it me or did it just get darker in here?"

"Oh shit," Trini muttered as the three of them clustered around the window. There, hovering a few hundred feet in the air was a craft just like the one they'd just been watching. It was so big it blocked out the sun; Trini thought she saw a plane crash into it, the explosion only a tiny pinprick of light against the thing's haphazard black background.

"We have to get out of here," Jason said, gently pulling his roommate and girlfriend away from the window. He turned into the room long enough to grab his communicator off the desk and clamp it around his wrist; he noticed with relief that Trini and Zack were already wearing theirs. Jason gave Zack a shove toward the door, grabbing Trini's hand tightly as he moved that way himself. "Guys, come on. We have to get out of here before…"

The first shockwave was powerful enough to throw all three of them out the open door, crashing into each other as they landed in a pile in the hallway. The window in Jason and Zack's room exploded inward, glass showering onto the floor. Jason jumped to his feet, pulling his friends up behind him. Other doors were being thrown open now, the occasional crash or thump echoing down the corridor as people fell or ran into each other or something fell over and broke.

"GO!" Jason roared, hurling Zack and Trini down the hallway ahead of him.

That was when things really went to hell.

Without warning, another shockwave crashed into them, powerful enough to rock the entire building. Another boy running down the corridor careened sideways into Zack, slamming them both against the wall. Jason grabbed Zack's shirt as he went by and yanked him along, racing toward the stairway. The three friends had to weave through a rapidly thickening crowd of people as every room in the building began to empty, the entire population of the dormitory stampeding toward the exits in a state of blind panic.

Zack suddenly skidded to a stop and pulled Jason and Trini to one side. "What about the elevator?" He shouted over the clamor. "Everyone's going for the stairs; maybe it's actually faster that way."

"We're on the eighth floor, man, we can't risk it falling!" Jason shouted back. Just then, the entire hallway was illuminated by the enormous projectile – this one glowing a hellish orange – that streaked past just outside the window beyond the elevator. A second later, there was another tremor from below, even more intense than the others, and the heavy elevator doors were thrown out of the wall, flying toward the hapless students by the rising explosion behind them.

"Fuck!" Jason tackled Zack and Trini to the floor as the massive slabs of metal whizzed by over their heads and a wave of intense heat washed over them. The people behind them weren't as lucky. The doors slammed into them with bone-crushing force, taking heads off and shattering limbs as they went, carving a swath of carnage down the hallway and leaving puddles of blood and broken, mangled bodies in their wake. Those closest to the elevator who'd managed to avoid the doors were cooked alive by the heat of the explosion. Zack glanced up long enough to see Ming, a girl from China, come running out of the rising smoke cloud on fire, clawing at her throat as screams of agony wracked her body. As the smoke cleared, other victims became visible, things that had once been people reduced to little more than clumps of charred flesh that filled the hallway with the sickening smell of cooked meat.

Trini screamed, the first of many hot tears beginning to stream down her face. She turned and started to look behind them but Jason thrust his head into her path. "Trini!" He shouted her name to get her attention over the rising clamor. She locked eyes with him, desperately searching his face for reassurance; all she found, though, was the cold reality of their situation. "Don't look back there," he said, gentle but firm. "Trust me, you'll wish you hadn't. Look at me. Hey, look at me." Some twisted urge made her crane her neck to try and see past him, and he cupped her cheek in his hand, forcing her eyes back to him. He held her gaze, his eyes burning with steely resolve. "I am gonna get us out of here, you got that? We're gonna get out of here, we're gonna get back home, and we're gonna show these assholes what they get for fucking with Power Rangers. All of us," he added, nodding to Zack. "But right now we need to get out of this building. Our communicators don't have teleportation capacity anymore and there's too much interference in here to call for a ride even under normal circumstances. Believe me, I've tried. But if we can get outside we can get home. I promise-"

She cut him off by thrusting her lips against his. The kiss, though short, was filled with longing and passion – both of them knew it may very well be the last. They pulled back and Jason held Trini close; she nuzzled her cheek against the stubble that grazed his chin. "Come on," he said after they'd taken all the time they could afford. He held her at arm's length and smiled. "We have a flight to catch."

"Right." Trini nodded and turned, and the three of them rejoined the throng of their fellow students that pushed toward the stairs, crushing themselves into a space that couldn't hold them all at once.

Despite its apparent herd mentality, the crowd of students moved surprisingly fast. Jason, Zack and Trini made it to the fifth floor in only a few minutes, and were just starting to believe they'd actually live through this when another projectile, this one bright, angry red, came flying straight through the wall ahead of them. An entire flight of stairs before them was suddenly just gone as the streaking ball of energy traveled straight through one wall and out the other, leaving crumbling holes in its wake. The destroyed set of stairs had been packed tightly with several dozen students, none of whom had any way of avoiding the thing that came crashing in toward them. A few of the luckier ones near the front or back managed to shove themselves to one side of the thing, but even some of them were unable to find steady ground on either side of the gaping hole in the stairway the thing left behind; the three Rangers saw a few of these people go tumbling into thin air, crashing with a stomach-churning thud into the stairs below, where most of them were trampled by the hysterical mob that sprinted away from the disaster, fleeing for their lives.

Those were the lucky ones. The wide majority of the people on the stairs between the fourth and fifth floors were caught directly in the path of the missile. Those at the epicenter were virtually obliterated by it, their bodies simply popping like balloons; Jason felt a spray of blood splash across his face, filling his nose with the horrible copper tang. Others who were more on the periphery were cast aside like human bowling pins, their crushed bodies sent hurtling through the air to slam with devastating force into the nearest wall or ceiling or go hurtling out through the hole in the wall. The screams of people plummeting fifty feet to the ground echoed in the stairway for a long moment; Zack couldn't decide which disturbed him more – the screams themselves or their abrupt, choked cessation.

"Holy god," Zack whispered. He nudged Jason, who was staring out through the hole the fireball had left behind as though he could bring it back. "Now what?"

Jason didn't budge his gaze away from the singed, collapsing hole. "We climb."

"Are you crazy?" Trini hissed at him, whirling around only to clamp a hand over her mouth at Jason's blood spattered face. Weakly, her voice muffled by her hand, she added, "We're five stories up, going out there is suicide."

"Would you rather we jump?" Jason asked, gesturing to the gaping hole in front of them. "We can go out the hole, climb down to the next floor, break in a window and take the stairs the rest of the way." Without even waiting for his friends to respond, Jason inched forward, his back pressed against the wall. Letting out a long, slow breath, he pivoted on his right foot and swung his left around, barely managing to catch the edge of the hole with his toes. Wishing he'd thought to put shoes on before this all went down, Jason leaned out as far as he dared, stretching out his arm and curling his fingers around the jagged edge of the opening. He awkwardly hopped on his other foot as close to the edge as he could get; the most he could get was a hold big enough for half his bare foot to rest on, unprotected sole grinding against splintering wood and mangled rebar.

Feeling the skin on the bottom of his foot being ripped off, Jason pushed off the edge of the destroyed hallway and half hopped, half dragged his left foot across the surface of the hole. He was just able to plant his other foot on the edge as he began to lose his balance, squeezing the side of the opening and curling his bleeding toes around the lip to steady himself. As he turned back to face Zack and Trini, he found he could just barely reach a hand up to the upper edge of the hole and press it against the broken wall to keep his balance. He glanced back at Zack and Trini and held out his right hand. "Come on."

Trini moved hesitantly to the ledge and regarded his position. "Are you sure you're stable?"

"Physically? Sure. Mentally?" Jason shrugged and smiled. Trini rolled her eyes and tucked the long hem of her yellow blouse into her tight jeans. She shot a glance at Zack before edging herself up to the ledge as far as she dared. She let out a long breath before leaping out over the empty space where the stairs had once been and catching Jason's hand with both of her own. Her weight swung forward like a pendulum and she planted both feet against the wall below the lip of the hole. She glanced up at Jason.

"You got me?" He nodded and she slowly begun walking up the wall until she found a tenuous foothold on the lip of the opening. Jason gave her a gentle tug and she pulled herself up to a standing position, her thin form just fitting between Jason's bulkier frame and the edge of the opening. She looked to Zack, who looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie; standing alone at the edge of the abyss, the ruined dorm crumbling to pieces behind him, his black shirt torn and dirty, his face streaked with sweat and grime and gore. Trini turned back to Jason. "What now?"

He jerked his head to his other side, where there was more than ample room for two more people to stand on the precarious ledge. Trini raised a skeptical eyebrow. "How exactly am I supposed to get over there?"

"Climb around me." At her look of incredulity, he raised a hand and gave her a very significant look. "I'm not going anywhere. Look." Jason held out his free hand and stood without moving for several seconds before he let it fall casually to his side. "Hold on to me; put your foot between my feet and lean against me for balance. Come on, it's like three feet. You'll be fine."

"I think you drastically underestimate your own size," Trini muttered, but she moved toward Jason, gripping his right hand in her left and placing her right hand on Jason's left shoulder. She slowly lifted one foot and placed it gently on the ledge between Jason's two bare feet. Her other foot soon joined it, but there was so little space that she was forced to stand with one foot on top of the other. Carefully, Trini maneuvered her right foot out from the bottom and extended it to Jason's other side. She let go of his hand and gently patted his hard, toned stomach. "Suck in that gut, soldier," she said quietly, grabbing his raised left arm with both hands and spinning herself away to find herself on the far side of the hole.

"Yes, ma'am," he muttered back, grinning. Trini moved a little further away, holding Jason's hand with one of her own and reaching out to lean against the far edge of the wall with the other. That was when she noticed the condition of his feet.

"Jesus, Jason," she gasped, staring at the trail of blood that ran down the outer brick wall of the building. "You're bleeding."

"I'm fine," he answered curtly, turning to extend an arm to Zack. "Nothing a trip to Command Center General won't fix."

"Assuming we get there," Zack piped up from the ledge.

"Would you shut the hell up and jump?" Jason shot back, drumming his fingers against the top edge of the hole. "If you're so concerned about my feet why don't you move your ass so we can go home?"

"Right. Sorry," Zack said casually as he swung his arms back and jumped, catching Jason's hand and swinging into the wall just as Trini had. "I just thought you wanted to fill your blood loss quota for today's little adventure before we left."

"Ha. Ha ha. Ha. Fuck you," Jason snapped, helping Zack walk up the wall while easing himself sideways towards Trini. By the time Zack had reached the ledge, there was sufficient room for him to stand, leaning against the side of the hole for balance.

The three of them gazed out over the campus and beheld the scene of mass carnage that lay spread out before them. Some buildings were on fire; others had begun to completely fold in on themselves. Occasional bolts of that strange alien energy came tumbling down from the sky. Jason counted five different colors, each behaving a little differently. There was the turquoise ones they'd seen on TV, which exploded upon impact and released a radiating field of deadly radiation that destroyed any living thing in its path; the orange ones which simply exploded, but seemed to create liquid fire that moved like it had a mind of its own; the red ones like the one they'd just seen, which ricocheted off the ground but plowed into buildings like a wrecking ball. Those three he'd already dealt with; the other two he saw were entirely new to him. One, which gleamed a shade of purple he would've found beautiful if it wasn't for its lethality, impacted with the ground and stuck there like a dart; after a moment, it released dozens of bolts of pure purple light that scattered in infinite directions, piercing anything they came into contact with. Finally, a single silver-colored fireball aimed itself toward a large group of survivors who had clustered outside the entrance to one of the buildings. It seemed to pop before it ever reached the ground, raining down some kind of fluid on the people beneath it; as Jason watched, the entire group went rigid, freezing in place and giving off their own dull silver glow. He frowned. _What the hell is that for? What are they gonna do with those people?_

He shook the thought from his mind – there was no time for that now.

"Guys," he said softly, snapping Trini and Zack out of similar reveries. Jason motioned with his head. "We need to climb down a level and around the corner to get in on the landing."

Trini turned a pale shade of green at the idea; Zack swept a hand out at the wall before them. "After you, fearless leader."

"Oh, sure," Jason complained, edging closer to the edge of the hole; Trini flattened herself against the side to give him as much room as possible. "Make the guy with the mutilated bare feet do the climbing first. Brilliant."

"You know, I distinctly remember this whole thing being your idea," Trini pointed out, still pressed against the side of the hole.

"Not helping." Jason turned to face the inside of the building, craning his neck to the wall below him. A ledge ran around the brick every ten feet or so; the nearest one was about four feet below him. There was also the occasional window, several feet apart, each with a steel bar running across the top and thin sills that projected from the wall. Gritting his teeth, Jason took his hand off the wall and hopped back from the ledge, catching the thin lip of the hole with both hands and planting his bare feet against the brick wall.

Trini and Zack let out twin shouts of surprise at his sudden drop; once he'd steadied himself, Zack shook his head and said, "Goddamn, Jase. No more _Assassin's Creed_ for you from now on."

"Let me know if you see some falcons and a hay bale," Jason retorted, smiling slightly at Zack's relieved chuckle before slowly unfolding himself, letting his feet rest on the ledge below. Once he'd nearly made it around the corner, Trini, then Zack followed him, using his bloody footprints as a guide for where to go next. Eventually, as Jason found himself situated over the window that led into the landing, which was still precariously intact, Zack stopped for a moment in the process of rounding the corner.

"Hey, Jase, your blood makes a really handy little guide to follow."

"You're welcome," Jason called back, before adding under his breath, "Asshole." He readied himself, squeezing the ledge above the window in both hands and testing the glass with his feet. _OK. My blood's gonna make this thing too slippery in a minute – it's now or never._ Jason swung back and kicked as hard as he could with both feet.

Nothing. The sheet of glass didn't even crack.

"Shit!" Jason screamed, moving himself off the window as quickly as he could so as not to lose his grip. "It's reinforced. We're gonna have to take a window from the other side, in the hallway." As he spoke, he dared a look behind him. For a moment he felt a rush of dizziness, which he shook off rather easily; not so easy to shake off was the realization of how small everything looked from fifty feet up. Jason turned back to the building, squeezed his eyes shut, and focused on shutting everything else out for the time being. They had to get around the building and inside or they were all going to die. It was that simple.

He zoned out a little at that point, let his hands and feet act on their own as he slid inside himself, entering a state of active meditation he'd perfected during one of his many late-night sparring sessions with Tommy in the training room beneath the Command Center. When he finally came back to himself, his earlier anxiety replaced by a detached, almost amused calm, he found himself already around the corner, moving at a downward angle along the building to a window that led into the hallway, one he hoped would be easier to break. Zack and Trini were perched about six feet above his head, gingerly following his tracks along the wall. Jason looked around and spied a viable window only ten more feet to his right. He looked up and started to inform his friends of their good luck when a red fireball came bursting out of the building mere inches to Zack's right. Trini shrieked the Black Ranger's name as he lost his grip and pinwheeled through the air, plummeting toward the ground.

Jason reacted on pure instinct. Coiling his body like a rubber band, he leapt to his left and caught Zack's wrist with his hand; as they fell, he stuck a hand out desperately for a hold…

And found a window that had already been shattered by some previous incident. His arm disappeared into it up to the shoulder and was dragged out by their combined weight. As his elbow cleared the ledge, Jason's scrabbling fingers finally found purchase and caught; the combined weight of both young men was suddenly yanked tight against Jason's right shoulder. He heard a pop, and then the agonizing pain of something separating. Grunting in pain, his jaw clenching, Jason looked down at Zack, tears of pain already forming in his eyes.

"Zack…" he gasped. "I hurt…my shoulder…mother_fucker_…you gotta…get off…can't…hold…" Jason let out a scream of pain that echoed across the chaos of their campus.

Zack looked at the wall before him. "There's a window here but the glass isn't broken. I need some way to swing against it."

Jason bent both legs at the knee, forming a pair of makeshift monkey bars. "How's this?"

"Great. One sec." Zack swung back on Jason's arm and leaned forward to grab first one leg, then the other, until his entire weight was held on Jason's right leg. The window was right there; he just needed some way to break it.

Following Jason's example, Zack bent his own legs at the knees and swung back, gradually building momentum and forcing himself to tune out his friend's pained groans. He counted softly to himself as he swung. "One…two…THREE!" Zack swung forward as hard as he could and flew knees first into the window, which mercifully shattered on impact. He landed hard on his back, grazing the top of his head on some of the jagged shards of glass that still lay on the sill as he rolled to the floor. He quickly leaned out the window. "Hold on, Jase!"

Zack darted up a flight of stairs to find Jason still dangling from a window on the fourth floor. He reached out and grabbed Jason's uninjured left arm, leveraging his feet against the wall to pull both of them into the hallway. Panting, the two young men lay on the floor for a moment, Jason cringing as waves of pain shot through his arm. "Where's Trini?" He managed to gasp.

"Right here." The yellow Ranger came bounding down the stairs, her face paling at the sound of Jason's strained, shaky voice. "I climbed through the hole that thing left behind. It missed the floor by a foot." She crouched at Jason's side and looked to Zack. "What happened?"

"When he caught me he ended up catching that window and hurt something in his shoulder. It sounded pretty bad."

"How do you think it felt?" Jason asked as the three rose slowly to their feet. "Come on. If we're lucky we can take the stairs all the way down and right through the front door and catch a ride the hell outta here."

It appeared they were lucky. The stairs held all the way down to the ground floor. Zack and Trini had to half-carry Jason for support, his feet unable to take his weight much longer. As they entered the main hallway on the ground floor, Jason shook himself free of their hold and said, "I can walk the rest of the way myself. Thanks."

Zack and Trini shook their heads at each other but let Jason go, moving carefully toward the front door. Trini slid her hand into Jason's and sagged against him with relief. "Thank god," she sighed. "I think we may actually get out of here."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than a deafening explosion sounded just above them. "You had to say something," Jason moaned.

"Sorry."

Before either of them could react, another red fireball came crashing through the ceiling; it traveled at a downward angle, its path bisecting the entire building before it crashed to the ground just outside the front door and bounced away.

There was an earsplitting creak as the dorm building's support beams began to give way, and the entire structure began to fold in on itself. Giant chunks of brick, concrete, sheetrock and wood began to rain down around them, throwing up a blinding cloud of dust. The three of them charged forward, racing desperately for the door. Trini reached it first, catching the doorframe and nearly falling into it; Jason slammed into her and carried both of them out the door and onto the grass…just as a turquoise fireball landed only a few yards away. The initial explosion flung them both back against the building like rag dolls, dragging cries of pain from both of them as they crashed into the brick façade and crumpled to the ground. Jason heaved Trini to her feet, but her legs wobbled and she fell against him; he glanced up to see the radiating dome spreading toward them, flying across the ground like a tidal wave. He threw Trini over his uninjured shoulder and staggered, exhausted, across the campus lawn as the energy wave raced toward him. The blades of grass tore into his lacerated feet; his shoulder felt like someone had punched him with a fistful of broken glass; his entire exhausted body screamed in protest, a new pain registering in his chest where he thought he may have cracked a few ribs; and yet he kept going, throwing himself and Trini away from the glowing blue-green death that chased after them like a hungry wolf.

Finally, he glanced over his shoulder and saw it dissipate. Jason dropped to his knees and let Trini roll down his arms to lie in the grass. "Trini?" He prodded her gently. There was a nasty wound above her left eyebrow from which blood had begun to pour, and several of her fingers were twisted at impossible angles, but he quickly found a pulse, and felt steady breathing from her nose. It was then that he noticed that they were alone.

"Zack!" The Red Ranger cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed his friend's name even louder this time, begging the universe to bring him back. "ZACK!" There was still nothing, no response except the continued chorus of death that filled the air around him.

He couldn't take it anymore.

Grunting in renewed agony, Jason raised his communicator to his mouth. "I swear to god if you don't work…Hello? Command Center, Zordon, do you read? This is Jason."

At first there was nothing but static, and Jason was about to try again when a booming yet gentle voice burst from the tiny device around his wrist. "We read you, Jason. It is good that you contacted us. With the attacks happening around the world and the high amount of interference from your campus, we were beginning to worry for your safety."

"Zordon," Jason panted, unable to hold back another grunt of pain. "That's just it. There was an attack here. Our dormitory building has been completely destroyed, Trini's unconscious and we were separated from Zack. We need emergency teleportation home right now. Please." He hated the way his last word sounded, as though he were begging, but seeing Trini in the state she was in and not knowing at all where Zack was, Jason felt as though he would fall apart himself pretty soon if they didn't get out of this.

"Jason," came the voice again, that voice he'd come to trust so implicitly over the last few years. It was filled with concern now, the great Eltarian mage not hiding his worry for his chosen Rangers' safety. "We've locked on to your location. It will only be a few seconds. Please be safe and try not to move."

"Thank you, Zordon." Jason tried to speak with the calm, clipped tone he usually used to talk with his mentor, addressing him like a soldier would a general, but his voice broke on the last word and he felt a terrified sob threaten to burst free from his mouth.

Just as Trini's eyes fluttered open, and she lightly squeezed his hand, three streaks of light launched into the Switzerland sunset. Two, one red and one yellow, were right next to each other, nearly joined together. Another, sparking black, was weaker, flickering, and came alone a few yards away. Their disappearance went unnoticed entirely by anyone else present; any of the few who were still alive at that point were too busy hiding or running for their lives to see them. The monolithic amalgamation in the sky was completely oblivious to them; after they'd departed, the massacre raged on as though the three had never been there at all.


	2. Come Back to Me

**Scorched Earth**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just the right to put them through hell for my own amusement. Saban owns everything Power Rangers related. Anything you don't recognize is mine. **

**Plot Summary: When a nameless evil invades Earth, killing everything in its path, the first eleven Power Rangers must face an enemy beyond anything they've ever encountered; and this time, they'll be pushed farther than some of them are willing to go. **

**Timeline: **_**Very **_**AU from the moment Zeo started; slightly AU from the moment Jason, Zack and Trini left. Takes place midway through Zeo, only Zeo didn't happen. Jason, Trini and Zack are still attending the Peace Conference in Geneva, Kim is still in Florida training for the Pan Globals, and Aisha is still in Africa. When they left, however, their powers weren't transferred – they still have them, and five new powers were created for their replacements. Also, that whole letter thing didn't happen, either. The current team, led by Tommy, is Billy, Rocky, Adam, Kat and Tanya.**

**Pairings: Jason/Trini, Tommy/Kim, Rocky/Aisha; others may come later.**

**A/N: This story assumes that the Rangers were juniors in high school when they got their original powers, meaning they are currently in their second year of college, putting their ages at approximately 20-21.**

**Warning: Rated M for graphic violence, language, crude humor and disturbing content, including major character death. (Nothing too explicit as far as sexual content, I'll keep that PG-13.) Essentially, this is what I imagine an R-rated Power Rangers movie would've looked like. If only, right?**

* * *

**Chapter 2: "Come Back to Me"**

"**It requires more courage to suffer than to die."  
****-Napoleon Bonaparte**

**United States National Gymnastics Team Training Center  
****Main Gym  
****Miami, Florida  
****August 28, 2012  
****1:30 PM EDT**

_Running start; jump, plant both feet on springboard. _

_ Tuck front flip onto beam, right foot in front of left, throw arms up to counteract forward momentum._

_ Brief pause. Deep breath._

_ Round-off into back flip, spread legs wide, laser focus on the beam. Place one foot, then the other._

_ Pivot full 360 on left foot, right leg extended as far as possible._

"Hey Kim!"

_Get interrupted by pretentious asshole._ "Hey, Sean. How's your parallel bar routine coming?" _Fake smile, feign interest. Doesn't matter what he does, stay on the beam, pretend he doesn't exist._

"Great. Should be more than ready for the Globals. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something."

_Huh. That's new._ "Uhh…OK. What's that?"

"Where did you get it?"

"Excuse me? Get what, exactly?"

"You know…" _The hell is he doing with his face? Is there some kind of hidden innuendo I'm not getting here?_ "That stuff you've been using. Where'd that come from?"

_Oh hell no. You did not just fucking ask me that._ "What makes you think I've been using anything? You are aware that sort of thing is about twelve different kinds of illegal, not to mention extremely stupid. Or do you _want_ your balls to shrink?"

"I'd be careful what you say to me right now, Kim." _Oh, that's great, look how threatening you look with your arms crossed all serious. The hell do you think you are, Ray Liotta?_ "It would really suck if Coach Schmidt found out about this."

"Are you threatening me, Sean?" _This is just sad. He can't even keep eye contact with me. One _look_ from Tommy or Jason and this shithead would wet his pants._ "Because that doesn't tend to work out well for most people."

"Oh, come on, Kimmie, spare me the self-righteous runaround and just tell me where your stuff came from."

Kimberly Hart's concentration on her beam routine was finally snapped, her urge to beat this guy to a pulp right there in the middle of the gym taking up the remainder of her attention. She lowered herself so she sat casually on the end of the beam, her legs swinging lazily, and looked him dead in the eye, her face a mask of amused disinterest. Sean Preston stood about 5'5"; the majority of his body mass concentrated in his wedge-shaped torso and oversized biceps. His short, sandy blond hair accentuated his protruding forehead and pale skin; his eyes were a muddy hazel color that gave the impression of indecision.

"You know Sean, I find it a little difficult to take you seriously when you're wearing basically the same thing I am," Kim said calmly. "Maybe next time you want to intimidate someone you shouldn't do it in a onesie."

Sean snorted and rolled his eyes. "I really don't have time for this, Kim. I'm going to ask you one more time, and if you don't tell me, I'm going to Schmidt. Where did-"

"I don't know what you think you're doing, Sean, but I don't have any 'stuff,' as you call it. Whoever told you I did is blowing smoke up your ass."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really? Cause Stephanie Miller doesn't strike me as a liar. You, though…" He trailed off and she hopped down from the beam to look him dead in the eye.

"Think very, _very_ hard about how you finish that sentence, Sean," she said quietly, jabbing a finger in his face. "I, not to mention any of the first six people on my speed dial, could very easily kick your ass. And Stephanie Miller once tried to tell me she had a dismount named after her when she was twelve. Either she's a way better gymnast than we've ever seen or you really need to work on your critical thinking skills."

Sean glared at her for a long moment before he finally shook his head. "Fine, don't tell me. You should know, though –"

"What did I just finish telling you about threatening me, Sean?" Kim placed her palms on the beam and prepared to hoist herself up. "Or do you need me to show you?"

"Maybe it's time you stopped letting your boyfriend fight all your battles for you."

Kim turned slowly to look him dead in the eye. "Maybe you should work on not letting your brain shut down completely anytime a hot piece of ass walks by."

He waved her off dismissively and turned to walk away, muttering "Bitch."

Kim pulled herself to her feet on the beam and watched him go. "Douchebag."

Just as she was about to begin performing her routine again, she felt a tremor run through the building. Kim paused and looked around. The gym was mostly comprised of one single, massive open room; numerous different apparatus were scattered throughout the large space, the whole thing lit by humming fluorescent lights and the smells of chalk and sweat. All around the room, men and women of roughly Kim's age and size were going through complex routines on different pieces of equipment, many of them tuning out the outside world in the process. The stereo system played some kind of bad Muzak playlist; the sounds meant to do nothing more than prevent utter silence. After a minute of calm, Kim decided she must have been imagining things and returned to her beam routine.

_Now where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?_ Kim bent her knees and leapt into another skill, throwing herself forward onto the beam and catapulting her weight into a series of handsprings that left her teetering on the end of the beam without an inch to spare. She threw her arms out in a flourish and tilted her head back, arching her body to demonstrate the grace of her movements.

She opened her eyes just in time to see the ball of bright orange…something come crashing through the gym's ceiling, careening over her head to impact the far wall. Kim stood riveted, her feet stuck to the beam as though they'd been nailed down, and watched in horrified fascination as a wave of fire bloomed out from the impact site. The heat from the flame was so intense she could feel it from all the way across the room. What was worse, she could swear the flame was…_alive_ somehow, as though it could control where and how quickly it spread – the inferno didn't seem to catch on the walls at all. Instead, it quickly made a beeline down to the floor, where it swept across the expansive floor of the building like it was made of rotting wood, greedily attacking any apparatus in its wake. As Kim looked on, the fire reached the uneven bars, the furthest apparatus from her, where another girl had perched on the top bar once the fire had begun to spread. The girl screamed and looked around desperately, searching for a way out, but she was trapped. The fire surrounded the bars entirely, the pad laid out beneath them letting out a soft _whoomp_ as it ignited, its soft stuffing fueling the cackling inferno even higher until the panicked girl's feet began to singe.

It didn't take long for the thick smoke and intense heat to get to her, and the girl lost her grip. Kim let out a shriek of her own as the girl disappeared into the hungry flames, a few stunned tears stinging her eyes. People had begun to run past her now, frantically charging toward the main doors to the gym. Kim finally managed to tear her gaze away from the place where the girl had once stood and hop down from the beam, hitting the ground running with the rest of her teammates. The twenty or so people in the gym raced for the door, seeking any possible escape from the nightmare they found themselves trapped in.

Suddenly, Kim felt the very air around her begin to vibrate; she cast several nervous glances around her but didn't see anything besides the fire that still grew steadily toward them. Then there came a soft whistling sound from somewhere outside the gym, a sound not unlike the sound effect of a bomb being dropped. With a gasp, Kim realized that she couldn't just _hear _the sound; she could _feel_ it, a gentle, soothing hum that seemed to sap all of the fear and anxiety right out of her. She slowed to a stop, seeing others around her do the same, and stared up into the gym ceiling, unable to do anything other than crane her neck toward the source of the sound. As the whistle steadily intensified, a small, blissful smile began to creep across Kim's face. The sound was so beautiful, so peaceful, so happy. It filled her entire body with a rush of such intense pleasure she could barely move, her arms and legs practically shaking from the intensity of her joy.

Kim and the other gymnasts stood frozen for several seconds; the fire seemed to recognize their incapacitation and stopped within a few feet of them, still blazing contentedly. Then a giant ball of energy glowing a spectacular shade of deep violet came crashing through the ceiling to land with a resounding boom just in front of the door. The eyes of the people gathered in the middle of the room centered on the luminous projectile as one, transfixed by its beauty. Its deep purple color pulsated gently, like a heartbeat, throbbing in a deeply relaxing rhythm. If any of those who stood there had been aware enough to notice, they would have felt themselves being slowly drawn forward, clustering around the strange missile like worshippers.

Suddenly, Kim felt a vicious tug at her mind – something was screaming a warning to her, desperately trying to yank her out of her trance. Her eyes widened, the blissful smile dropping from her face as her Ranger instincts thrust themselves into her conscious and the danger of the situation became apparent.

"Get down!" She screamed, still unable to move her body. Nobody seemed to hear her; the other gymnasts' eyes had begun to glaze over, their faces frozen in expressions of ecstatic reverence. Kim wrenched her torso back and forth, her movements still restricted as if she was bound. Finally, she was able to pull one of her feet free of its prison on the floor and spin sideways. Kim grabbed the two closest people and dove to the floor, screaming her warning again. As she fell, a searing heat lit up across her back, tearing her leotard in half as the bolt of purple electricity shot by just over her head. She watched as it traveled to the back wall, disappearing into the blackened sheetrock as Kim and her two companions toppled to the floor.

The sound that followed would stay in Kimberly's mind for as long as she lived. A series of muffled thumps, hollow knocks, and the faint sizzle of burnt flesh echoed through the now silent gym all at once, a horrifying audio cocktail that sent a shiver down her spine. Forcing her eyes open, wincing at the pain in her back, Kim glanced around her and had to throw a hand over her mouth to avoid puking at the sight that awaited her.

Over a dozen people, people she'd known for the last two years, who'd shared her dream of global competition in the sport they'd grown up with, lay sprawled across the unburnt semi-circle of the gym floor. Their faces were frozen in expressions of shock, wide eyes staring out sightlessly from rapidly paling flesh. What really made the Pink Ranger's stomach turn, though, were the jagged holes that had appeared in their bodies, the seared edges blackening their clothes. Some of them had been completely cauterized; others, like the one driven through the chest of a tall girl with blonde hair, slowly seeped blood crusted with tiny, blackened bits of roasted flesh.

Fighting the bile rising in her throat, Kim pulled herself to her feet and found with amazed relief that three people were still standing, their bodies still whole, looking around them in confusion. The two people Kim had tackled were behaving much the same way – disoriented and groggy, as if just rising from a long sleep. She helped them up and looked around at the survivors. Sean stood off to one side, gaping down at a body in front of him which had taken a bolt straight through the face, burning away much of the nose and eyes and leaving bits of charred bone and brain matter splattered on the floor around it. Two others, a guy Kim knew only as Matt and a broad-shouldered African-American girl named Hannah Spencer who had been giving her pointers on her vault, were nearby, staring down at themselves as though in awe of their intact bodies. Of the two people she was pulling up from the floor, only one was familiar: Stephanie Miller, the skinny girl with waist length black hair to whom Sean had credited his accusation of her steroid usage. The other was a boy whose face was familiar to Kim but whose name escaped her completely at the moment.

Kim instinctively reached for her wrist to call for a ride home only to find it bare.

"Shit!" She hissed to herself. She had left her communicator in the locker room with her other clothes after it had dug into her wrist during floor exercise practice yesterday. "Hey guys!" She waved her arm in the air to get the attention of everyone left. Hannah had bent double and put her hands on her knees, and looked up at Kim right in the middle of vomiting on the floor. The sudden change of trajectory sent her sick splashing across the face of a body that lay before her. Stephanie's eyes were pooling with panicked tears, her breath coming in hitched gasps as she pulled strands of scorched, bloody hair out of her face. Kim waited until all of their shell-shocked eyes were locked on her before she continued.

"Normally I would say this might sound crazy but considering what just happened I think we've moved past that," she said, stepping carefully over a body to stand with her back to the glimmering purple rock. "We need to get to the locker room. I can call for a, uh…" she fumbled for a moment to find the right word. "For a rescue. It sounds a little weird but you're just gonna have to trust me." Receiving only blank stares from most of them, Kim sighed a little. _Damn I'm rusty at that. Never thought there'd come a time when I wished I was _better_ at lying._

Finally, Matt spoke up, his voice a gravelly baritone that resonated even as it trembled slightly. "And just how the fuck are we supposed to do that? In case you haven't noticed, that…" he gestured emphatically toward the purple projectile. "Glowing purple landmine thingy is blocking the door."

"W-we could just try to r-roll it out of the way," Stephanie said quietly, wringing her hands in front of her.

"You wanna touch that thing without a Hazmat suit? Be my guest," Sean retorted with a dismissive snort. As he spoke, Kim watched the boy she didn't know pick up a piece of burnt metal from a destroyed apparatus; it was roughly cylindrical, about four feet long and as big around as her forearm. The boy hefted it in his hand, testing its weight. When he seemed satisfied, he moved toward the doorway and extended the piece of metal toward the shining purple rock.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell are you doing?" Matt shouted at him, diving to one side as though covering from another attack. The boy didn't even acknowledge that he'd been spoken to, simply leaned forward until he tapped the strange rock with the tip of the metal shard. Almost instantly, the tip of the metal piece began to liquefy, dripping molten steel onto the concrete floor. The unfamiliar boy let out a guttural roar of pain and reared back, the remnants of the piece of metal clattering to the floor only to melt right before their eyes. The boy gripped his left hand in his right, his teeth clenched together as his face contorted with agony.

"Hey!" Kim darted over and squatted in front of the boy, gripping his face in both hands. "Are you OK? What's your name?"

The boy just stared at her, not saying a word.

"His name is Blake," Hannah said from behind her, choking back a sob. "He's deaf."

"Deaf, huh?" Kim rocked back onto her heels, letting go of Blake's face and making several rapid motions with her hands. To her surprise, the boy let out a small chuckle and made a few half-hearted motions with his uninjured hand. It wasn't perfect, but Kim got the gist. She rose to her feet and tore a strip of cloth from her tattered leotard. Blake held out his left hand and slowly uncurled his fingers, revealing an angry red burn that had begun to blister and peel, oozing bloody pus from a ragged trench in the flesh. His entire palm looked like a firecracker had gone off in his open hand. Cringing at the wound, Kim wrapped the piece of cloth around it as tightly as she could, fighting not to gag as the pus began to soak through. She helped Blake to his feet and turned to find Sean and Matt dragging the springboard from the beam over to the doorway.

"What are they doing?" Kim asked Hannah quietly. The other girl wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered.

"They're gonna try to jump over that thing to get to the door." Hannah shrugged noncommittally and gazed past Kim into empty space.

"Hannah," Kim said gently, taking the girl by the shoulder. Bloodshot eyes flicked weakly in her direction. "Listen to me. Everything's gonna be fine. We are all gonna get out of here and I am gonna get us home. OK?" When Hannah didn't move, just kept on staring right through her, Kim shook the other girl a little and gestured at the springboard. "Come on. That thing is your bitch; I don't know anybody who can get as much air off that thing as you can." Hannah smiled a little at that, and Kim finally saw a hint of focus fade back into her eyes. She clapped the girl on the shoulder and turned in time to see Matt charge the springboard, plant his feet on it, leap into the air and execute a flawless front layout with a half twist before landing lightly on both feet in front of the door.

"Show off," Sean grumbled. Matt grinned, took a showy bow, and leaned backward without looking behind him, pushing the doors open and gesturing through them like a butler.

Kim shook her head. _Boys._ She watched as Sean, then Blake jumped off the board and landed next to Matt near the door. She turned to Hannah again.

"Let's go, girl. You got this."

Hannah nodded slowly and stepped into position. She took a deep breath and charged the board, pumping her arms frantically back and forth. As she neared it, some kind of muscle memory must've kicked in because she launched into a round-off back handspring and rocketed off the board, clearing the rock by nearly four feet. She flew so high she nearly hit the wall above the door and had to stick a hand out to slow herself down. Matt caught her and lowered her to the floor with an appreciative whistle.

Kim raised an eyebrow and glanced at Stephanie. "Go ahead. I'm right behind you."

As the other girl began her approach, Kim thought something seemed off about her movements somehow. Was she favoring one foot over the other? Why was she moving so slowly? Kim opened her mouth to shout a warning, to scream at Stephanie to stop and try again, but she never got a chance. Stephanie leapt for the board, but Kim knew her aim was off from the moment her feet left the floor. She had jumped from too far back, hadn't been moving fast enough, and tried to compensate by jumping further than she should have.

It was too much.

Stephanie's trajectory was so off that only her heels came down on the board, lending her no power at all. She toppled forward, her arms spread wide, slamming into the rock as though trying to hug it. Less than a second later, Stephanie's skin began to turn runny, like melting ice cream. A faint purple flame broke out over the entire surface of her body, and she howled in pain, falling to the floor in a writhing heap as her hair began falling out of skin too soft to hold it, her clawing hands ripping shreds of flesh off of her bones. It didn't take long for every bit of flesh to melt into a thick, syrupy red puddle. Not even her skeleton was spared; it burned until all that remained was a little mound of powder, the vicious purple flame claiming every bit of her.

When it was over, Kim finally allowed herself to puke.

It seemed like hours before Sean was finally able to tear his eyes away from what was left of Stephanie and turn to Kim.

"Kim," he said softly. "Come on. We gotta go."

Kim glanced up at him, blinking rapidly as though she could scrub the image of Stephanie's death off of her eyeballs. "Yeah," she replied, shaking her head a little. She let out a long breath and dashed toward the springboard, putting every ounce of power she could manage into one jump. Kim somersaulted over the rock and dove to the floor, landing hands first. She bent her elbows, tucked her chin, and rolled through the open doorway and across the hallway into the corridor beyond. The others turned and regarded her quizzically as she popped up to her feet, bouncing a little from her excess momentum.

Sean reached her first. "Are you sure you're not on steroids?"

Kim laughed. "I'm not sure of much at all right now."

Hannah and Blake had reached them by then; Kim saw over Hannah's shoulder that Matt was still leaning in the doorway, staring back into the gym. Hannah turned and called to him across the intersecting hallway. "Matt, we need to move!"

"Wha?" Matt jerked a little as though Hannah had punched him instead of simply calling to him. He rubbed his eyes with the back of one hand and blinked a few times. "Oh. Yeah." He let go of the doorframe and started across the intersection between the two hallways. He was only halfway there when it happened.

The five young gymnasts were so distracted by the horrifying deaths they'd just witnessed that none of them heard the incoming rumble of the blazing red fireball that raced toward them. It bounced once, its angle carrying it slightly upward, away from the ground, and crashed through the walls of the gym building, destroying everything in its way. The fireball moved so fast that by the time Matt even realized something was coming, all he had time to do was turn and have his vision filled by an oncoming red missile, a small gasp of surprise the only thing he could manage before it plowed into him with bone-crushing force. The four people gathered on the other side off the hallway barely even saw the fireball; to them, a red blur had just zipped by before them and then Matt was just…gone. All that was left were two smoking feet that terminated in ragged stumps just below the knees. Everything else just disappeared, faster than any of them could comprehend.

Hannah gasped and staggered back, her legs trembling as she fought to stay standing. She fell into Blake and Sean, the three of them tumbling onto their asses on the floor. Kim gaped openmouthed at the spot where Matt's feet still stood on the floor, the irregular nubs of bone protruding from them blackened by the heat of the projectile.

"Holy shit," she whispered, wiping a strand of hair behind her ear. Her hand froze on the way back down to her side. Her hair had been tied into a tight bun when she had started practice that morning; there was no way she would've needed to tuck any hair behind her ear unless…

Tentatively, gingerly, as though the floor were about to give way beneath her, Kim stepped out into the hallway where the fireball had come through and glanced from side to side. Sunlight filtered in through twin holes in the exterior walls of the training facility, a warm, humid cross breeze flitting from one opening to the other. The tattered shreds of Kim's pink leotard flapped gently in the moving air, which carried on it the undeniable smells of blood and burning rubber. Peering out through the hole nearest her, Kim could see a fire burning in the distance; if she craned her ears, she could hear the panicked screams of people fleeing for their lives, the occasional deep boom of another fireball impacting Earth. She stood there until the tears that had begun to pool in her eyes had been blown dry, leaving dual circles of chill on her face. Her teeth clamped down on her lower lip and a fresh wave of resolve slowed her breathing and steadied her legs.

"I am not gonna fucking die in here," Kim whispered forcefully to herself, her hands balling into fists. She turned and ran over to her three companions; Blake and Sean were just helping Hannah to her feet. Kim skidded to a stop beside them, clapping one hand down on Blake's shoulder, the other on Hannah's. She gestured down the hallway with her head. "The locker room is right there. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I'm ready to go the hell home. You coming or what?"

Receiving three surprised nods in return, Kim smiled and started sprinting down the hallway, veering left toward the heavy door at the far end of the hall. She heard the footsteps of the others behind her, their breathing coming in ragged gasps as their feet slapped against the concrete floor. The door was right there, the handle glinting softly in the filtered sunlight. Kim reached for it, not slowing, her outstretched fingers curling in preparation to grip it.

The explosion threw her past the doorway, her body twisting and spiraling through the air as the shockwave tossed her aside like a rag doll. She landed hard on her right hip and rolled violently across the floor until her chest slammed into the wall, whipping her head forward. Kim's forehead hit the wall so hard it rattled her teeth, her vision going red for a moment as her brain smacked against the inside of her skull. She groaned softly and pushed herself up to a seated position, supporting her weight on one extended arm.

The others had been thrown in the opposite direction; they were still rising uneasily to their feet, extricating their tangled limbs from each other, when Kim noticed the strange green dome that seemed to radiate out toward them from a point between her and the others, even with the doorway. She managed to get her feet beneath her and was pulling herself up by the windowsill, her white knuckles squeezing the edge of the wood, when the blue-green light reached the others. Sean reached out a hand to touch it only to watch the hand dissolve into nothing, as though it were a puzzle the thing had taken apart. Sean screamed in pain and shoved Blake and Hannah away as hard as he could with one hand, stumbling feebly away from the energy.

"RUN!" He cried, his voice made shrill by agony. Blake just stared at him, bewildered, but Hannah grabbed the deaf boy around the neck and wrenched him away, throwing him down the hallway ahead of her with almost preternatural strength before sprinting for the door herself. Sean tried to follow them, but his gait was awkward, his movements made jerky and uneven by the way he hugged the bloody stump of his left hand to his chest. He had to use his torso to balance himself like he normally would have with his arms, whipping his upper body back and forth as he ran, wheezing desperately, a trail of blood pattering the floor behind him.

It wasn't enough. Halfway to the door, Sean stumbled and lost his balance, going down hard on one knee. Before he could even regain his wits, the blue-green wave was upon him. Sean looked up and made direct eye contact with Kim; as the wave passed over his body, and first his legs, then his right side began to crumble away, Kim thought she saw him give her the smallest of nods. Then his face contorted into a mask of agony and the rest of his body began to fall apart until there was nothing left but a few scraps of clothing and a small pile of dust in the hallway.

Kim tore her eyes away and made a move for the door. The wave had almost reached it; she watched Hannah and Blake sneak by it, the wave just missing their bodies as they edged around the doorframe into the locker room. Luckily for Kim, the door opened away from her. By the time she'd reached the doorframe, the wave had filled it up to waist height and was quickly moving forward.

She never even broke stride. Feet pounding the floor, the Pink Ranger sprinted toward the door with all the speed she could manage. At the last possible instant, just as she reached the wave, she swung her arms back and flew from the ground, diving through the small opening between the wave and the upper left corner of the door jamb. Her outstretched hands hit the ground first, and she let her momentum carry her feet over her head; the moment she felt them hit the floor, she bent her knees and sprang forward again, coming to a rest on the small concrete bench that jutted out from the front of the row of lockers. She pressed her back against the metal doors and held her breath, flattening herself as much as possible.

The wave dissipated less than a foot in front of her. Kim's shoulders slumped with relief and she hopped down from the bench, noticing for the first time that the locker room was completely without a ceiling, every inch of the concrete and metal illuminated by sunlight. "Hannah!" She called into the room, scanning the numbers for her own locker. "Are you guys OK?"

The response came immediately. "We're both OK. Blake's with me." A moment later the two of them came around the corner, Blake fitting what appeared to be some kind of hearing aid into his ear while Hannah fiddled with a small gold cross that hung from a chain around her neck. Kim smiled at them with relief as she found her locker and swung it open. There it was. Her communicator lay on top of her duffel bag, glinting in the sunlight. As she reached in to get it, she heard a _pop_ from high above her; Kim's Ranger instincts kicked in and she dove to the ground, pulling her communicator and duffel bag out of the locker behind her as she went, and rolled under the concrete ledge. No sooner had she flattened herself to the floor, the duffel behind her head, than she saw a thick, silver liquid splash onto the floor.

"Hannah?" She called nervously. "Blake? What's happening out there?" When no response came, Kim clipped her communicator to her wrist and spoke into it. "Hello? Zordon? Tommy, Alpha, anybody? This is Kimberly, it's an emergency! Someone please, answer!" At first Kim got nothing but static, the panic in her voice rising steadily with every second. She squeezed the button on the small device down so hard it hurt the tip of her finger, screaming into the microphone. "Help! Somebody, please, answer! Help me!" She begged, her cries dissolving into horrified tears as her calls went unheeded.

Then, through the static, there came a single word.

"Kim?"

She had never been so happy to hear her own name in her entire life. It helped some that it was him that said it. "Tommy?"

She heard a squawking sound that was actually his ecstatic cheer; when he spoke again she could hear his smile, his wonderful smile. "Hey, Beautiful! We've been trying to find you forever! Are you OK?"

"Not that I'm not super excited to hear your voice, Handsome," Kim grunted, sliding herself along the rough floor, pushing the duffel ahead of her, until she was clear of the silver liquid. "But why am I talking to you and not Zordon or Alpha?"

"Zordon's talking to Jason in Geneva. He called in right before you did. Alpha…" Tommy's voice trailed off and Kim stopped, her back raw from scraping across the floor.

"What? Tommy, what's Alpha doing?"

Tommy took a long, shaky breath. "He's still trying to track down Aisha. When the shit hit the fan something happened and we uh…we can't get a lock on her life signs."

"Oh my god," Kim muttered as she rolled out from under the ledge and climbed to her feet. "Tommy what's happening? Did you say Zordon was talking to Jason? Why? Were they attacked too? _What the fuck is going on?_" Her last words were almost shouted, another batch of tears threatening to burst forth from her eyes.

"I don't know, babe. Rocky's not taking this so well, Adam and Tanya had to take him out of the room while we kept searching. I'm just so glad you're OK. Hold on a second and I'll get you out of there-"

"Tommy, wait!" Kim said, pulling her duffel out and slinging it over her shoulder. "I have two other people with me who need evacuation, their names are…" Her voice trailed off as she turned to find Blake and Hannah standing frozen like statues, staring up into the sky, their bodies glowing a faint shade of silver. "What the hell?" She waved a hand in front of Hannah's face. Nothing.

"Kim, we're not reading anybody nearby," Tommy said. "Your life signs are the only ones for almost half a mile."

"What? That's impossible, I'm looking right at them!" Kim exclaimed. She held two fingers under Hannah's nose. "She's breathing and everything!"

"Kim, I'm telling you, there are no other readings," Tommy replied impatiently. "Now hold still and let me teleport you home."

"No!" She screamed, reaching out to grab Hannah's shoulder. "I'm not leaving them here!" The other girl's body felt strange – what Kim could touch was freezing cold, but there was also a feeling of slight sponginess, as though Kim's hand was about to fall through the other girl's skin. Ignoring that for the moment, Kim threw another hand out to grip Blake's wrist, where she felt the same cold and permeability. The last thing she saw before the world turned pink and disappeared was the frozen bodies of her two companions falling away from her, shrinking in their places on the site of the massacre as she was teleported out. Even though they'd been touching, she realized with mounting horror that she'd left both of them behind.

* * *

**Turkish Airlines Flight 1623  
****Somewhere over West Africa  
****August 28, 2012  
****Approx. 5:30 PM, Local Time**

Aisha Campbell hated flying.

She knew she shouldn't think about things that way, that hate, as her Grandma put it, was "ugly and wasteful;" but damn it, sitting for thirteen hours in a tiny, pressurized steel tube thirty thousand feet off the ground with her ass sticking to the uncomfortable seat and three screaming babies driving nails into her ears, she couldn't think of any other way to put it. She fucking hated flying.

Aisha groaned and leaned back in her seat, pressing her pillow over her face in a futile attempt to block out the crying, the engine roar, and the far-too-bright cabin lights. She was really starting to reconsider whether this flight was worth the hundred bucks or so it had saved her over the faster route home. She had three connecting flights to catch and none of them so much as served food.

_Yeah, that whole "Never use Ranger technology for personal gain" thing is looking like a crock of shit right about now_, Aisha thought, dropping her hands into her lap with an exasperated sigh. She glanced out the window to her right at the barren landscape beneath them, dotted with small patches of shade by the odd tiny cloud that floated lazily by. It had been pretty much the same view for the last three hours, and all she had to look forward to was the infinite blue of the ocean. She looked down and set her watch to California time. She did some quick math and realized her flight had left at just after 8 AM in Angel Grove, and she still wouldn't get there until tomorrow. Fantastic.

"God, kill me now…" she muttered.

"Careful what you wish for," the guy next to her said. He looked a few years older than Aisha, his shaved head shining under the harsh cabin lights. "Some of us would like to make it home alive, if you don't mind."

Aisha glanced at the guy sidelong and raised an eyebrow. "And _this_ was the mode of transportation you trusted to get you there? You wanna talk about tempting fate…"

"Actually," the guy said, shifting his weight so he could turn to look directly at her. "Air travel is one of the safest possible ways to travel. You're more likely to die driving to the airport than in the plane you board when you get there."

"It's a little frightening that you knew that so quickly," she replied, making eye contact. "I'm guessing you either work for the NTSB or you're a salesman for Boeing."

"Actually I'm more like George Clooney from _Up in the Air_," he laughed. "I spend more time on planes than I do in my own house."

"I don't know whether to pity you or laugh at your stupidity," Aisha said with a smile. "And I hate to break this to you but you're nowhere near as hot as George Clooney."

"What?" The guy's eyes widened in mock surprise. "Those bastards at work lied to me!" The two of them broke into laughter at that, and Aisha tossed her pillow onto the empty window seat beside her and extended a hand.

"I'm Aisha."

"Jack," he offered, taking her hand. "So what brings an American your age way out here?"

Aisha paused for a moment, slightly taken aback. It was a perfectly normal question but for someone in her position he may as well have asked her to solve a quantum mechanics equation. "I, uh…I've been visiting family," she said quickly, hating the taste of the lie on her tongue. The flavor seemed to get bitterer every time.

"Oh," he said, looking entirely unconvinced; luckily for her he didn't push it. "I was here with a volunteer group that travels around the world and help improve medical infrastructure in other countries. We're basically Doctors Without Borders but we're also Without Budget and Without Any Level of Corporate Sponsorship."

Aisha giggled quietly before she suddenly stopped and raised a finger. "Wait a second. Let me see if I understand something. You're a doctor named Jack, you're sitting in row 23 on an 8:15 flight, and you're telling me I _shouldn't_ be worried about plane crashes?"

"Well if we were flying over the South Pacific I would've said something different," he replied with a twinkle in his eye. "But here I don't think we have anything to worry about."

"Famous last words," she retorted. He smiled and reached into the backpack that sat at his feet, pulling out an iPod that had seen far better days.

"I'm going to try and get some sleep, I find it helps with jet lag and makes the plane ride go faster. Two birds, one stone and all that." Aisha nodded and watched as Jack inserted the earbuds into his ears, leaned back and closed his eyes. After less than five minutes he was snoring softly.

"Lucky son of a bitch," she whispered, turning again to gaze out the window. After a moment she grabbed her pillow, unbuckled her seatbelt and slid over into the empty seat right next to the window. She leaned her forehead against the sticky plastic wall of the cabin and stared blankly at the Earth below, letting her eyes drift into and out of focus. After an indeterminate amount of time, something snapped her back to reality – her unfocused eyes had picked something out of the landscape like a magic picture.

A shadow lay over a patch of ground off the port side of the plane. It was jagged, irregular in shape, and frighteningly massive in size. Aisha frowned and slowly let her eyes pan upward toward the source. When she finally saw it, she let out a small gasp of shock and clamped a hand over her mouth.

It was some kind of floating fortress, seemingly constructed from a random jumble of mismatched parts that protruded out of it at odd angles, its entire surface a single pane of glistening black glass except for the parts that appeared designed to reflect light back at the observer. Aisha had to squint in order to see it properly, the glare so intense it nearly covered the entire thing.

"What the hell?" She whispered, her breath leaving a cloudy spot on the window. The levitating monolith wasn't moving, wasn't doing much of anything except just sitting there, it…

No. Wait. The surface of the thing began to twinkle, spots of different sizes and colors flashing across the surface following no perceivable pattern. As the Purple Ranger looked on, the light show began to speed up, increasing in both intensity and frequency as thousands of spots of color scattered along the polished black glass. Soon the flashes were so fast they seemed to bleed together, until the whole vessel glowed a brilliant, blinding white, so bright it filled the entire cabin of the plane; at this point other passengers had begun to notice. Aisha heard several shocked exclamations in languages she didn't speak. She pressed her forehead to the glass and watched, awestruck, as dozens of streaking balls of multicolored fire erupted from the thing, zooming toward the Earth too fast to be falling naturally. One, tinted a disarming shade of turquoise, flew much more horizontally than vertically, tracing an arc through the sky that brought it just behind the tail of the plane. Aisha craned her neck in an attempt to see it, but the window severely limited her peripheral vision.

Suddenly she heard what sounded like a bass drum thumping, and the plane was rocked by a violent tremor, people and luggage thrown roughly forward by a mysterious turbulence. Several people screamed, the babies scattered throughout the cabin wailing in terror. Aisha felt her head crash against the seat in front of her, stars bursting in her eyes for a moment before she pulled herself to her feet and grabbed Jack by the shoulder. He glanced up at her, his face frozen in shock; she gripped a handful of his shirt and dragged him out of the seat, practically throwing him into the aisle.

"We need to move!" She shouted over the noise, some distant Ranger instinct alerting her to some vague approaching threat. He furrowed his brow in confusion. Aisha swung her legs out over the seat and set herself down gently in the aisle, fighting to keep her balance as the plane began to shake beneath her. She gave Jack a gentle shove toward the front of the plane. "Go! Now!"

Just as Jack seemed to find his feet again and stagger forward down the rocking aisle, a wall of blue-green light appeared at the back of the plane, moving quickly toward them. Jack stopped and stared at it in awe, his mouth working but making no sound. Aisha spun around and watched the oncoming wave move toward them as it approached the first row of seats.

The first person the wall of light touched was a flight attendant who stood in the aisle, trying to hold the overhead compartment closed. Faster than Aisha could even move, the blue-green light had consumed the woman entirely, allowing only time for a small, choked cry of pain before reducing her to a tiny mound of dust on the aisle floor.

Aisha whirled and threw herself into Jack, shoving him down the aisle in front of her. People all around them were diving aside as they charged them like angry bulls.

"Get up!" She called to them, desperately racing toward the nose of the plane. "You have to move! Hurry!"

There was a clamor of footsteps, grunts, screams and thuds as people leapt into the aisle, climbing over each other in a frantic attempt to escape the wall of death that chased them. Over the rest of the noise there came the sound of an occasional agonized shriek, followed by a muffled twang like a guitar string being plucked as another passenger succumbed to the energy wave. Aisha heard one of the crying babies abruptly go silent and shuddered as she drove herself ever forward, one hand on Jack's back while she pushed off of passing seats with the other, her footsteps pounding on the hard floor of the cabin as she ran. The plane shook viciously again, throwing suitcases out of the overhead bins; Aisha just managed to duck a heavy black trunk that came hurtling toward her. She heard a sickening smack from behind her as it collided with another passenger.

Finally, mercifully, she and Jack reached the curtains separating coach from first class. Aisha could literally feel the heat of the energy wave washing over her as she planted her feet and dove through the curtain, bracing herself for impact. She came down on her right shoulder and rolled to her feet only to see the wave a mere six inches in front of her. Aisha squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the end…and nothing happened. All she felt was a brief blast of hot air flow over her face; she popped one eye open and took in the sight of the back half of the plane. All that was left of any of the people who had just been standing there were small piles of dust that spilled out of the seats and littered the aisle.

She didn't hear any babies crying anymore.

"Fuck," Aisha said, her breath catching in her throat. Hot tears began to sting her eyes as she climbed shakily to her feet, supporting her weight on the nearest seat, gripping the fabric with rapidly whitening knuckles. Jack came up behind her and leaned forward to lay a hand on her shoulder when a huge red blur passed within centimeters of her and the entire back half of the plane disappeared right in front of Aisha's face. Daggers of cold air whipped against her exposed skin, the remaining half of the plane yanking them roughly to the left as it descended into a plummeting spiral, tumbling out of control toward the ground.

Aisha felt herself pulled forward, her feet teetering precariously over the edge of the destroyed plane as the aggressive fingers of the wind clawed at her hungrily, threatening to suck her out into the open sky. She wind-milled her arms desperately, but the act had no effect; she would've gone right over the edge if Jack hadn't thrown an arm around her chest just under her outstretched arms and pulled her back into what remained of the fuselage. He spun on one heel, twisting her back onto the floor, where she landed sprawled on her ass, her hands pressed against the floor as the plane plunged toward the ground. Jack stood before her, his body reduced to a dark silhouette by the sunlight that now flooded the cabin.

"You OK?" He called over the roar of the wind. Aisha winced and tried to stand.

"If we land on some creepy island and I get eaten by a smoke monster I will never forgive you," she said, stumbling toward him as she raised her communicator. It was officially time to get the hell out of here.

In her haste to escape, Aisha had completely lost track of any of the other people on the plane, and thus it came as a great surprise to her when a man went tumbling past her out of nowhere, slamming against seats and walls as he soared toward the hole. The man's foot caught Jack square in the jaw, and the two of them toppled out of the hole into the unforgiving air.

Aisha never even stopped to think. She raced toward the hole and dove out into the atmosphere, pressing her hands together to streamline herself as she fell toward Jack's twisting form. The distance between them closed slowly but steadily, the whipping wind snatching any moisture from her open mouth, leaving her tongue flailing absently against a throat made scratchy and raw by the fierce current. Aisha felt her heart beating against her chest, her blood thumping in her ears as she finally caught up to Jack and reached a hand out to grab him.

She was only a few inches away when her vision began to color with sparks of purple, her surroundings growing muted by the crackling sound of teleportation.

"No!" She cried, her words immediately torn away by the rushing wind. Aisha could only watch as Jack fell away from her, his body hurtling toward the distant Earth as she was yanked away, her grasping fingers curling futilely around nothing but air.

When she regained her wits again, Aisha found herself on the hard concrete floor of the Command Center; she could hear the soft beeping of computers and Alpha's worried babbling in the background as the others clustered around her.

"You know," she said as she struggled to a kneeling position. "You guys' timing really sucks."


	3. The Downfall of Us All

**Scorched Earth**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just the right to put them through hell for my own amusement. Saban owns everything Power Rangers related. Anything you don't recognize is mine. **

**Plot Summary: When a nameless evil invades Earth, killing everything in its path, the first eleven Power Rangers must face an enemy beyond anything they've ever encountered; and this time, they'll be pushed farther than some of them are willing to go. **

**Timeline: **_**Very **_**AU from the moment Zeo started; slightly AU from the moment Jason, Zack and Trini left. Takes place midway through Zeo, only Zeo didn't happen. Jason, Trini and Zack are still attending the Peace Conference in Geneva, Kim is still in Florida training for the Pan Globals, and Aisha is still in Africa. When they left, however, their powers weren't transferred – they still have them, and five new powers were created for their replacements. Also, that whole letter thing didn't happen, either. The current team, led by Tommy, is Billy, Rocky, Adam, Kat and Tanya.**

**Pairings: Jason/Trini, Tommy/Kim, Rocky/Aisha; others may come later.**

**A/N: This story assumes that the Rangers were juniors in high school when they got their original powers, meaning they are currently in their second year of college, putting their ages at approximately 20-21.**

**Warning: Rated M for graphic violence, language, crude humor and disturbing content, including major character death. (Nothing too explicit as far as sexual content, I'll keep that PG-13.) Essentially, this is what I imagine an R-rated Power Rangers movie would've looked like. If only, right?**

* * *

**Chapter 3: "The Downfall of Us All"**

"**No matter under what circumstances you leave it, home does not cease to be home."  
****-Joseph Brodsky**

**Angel Grove Youth Center  
****Angel Grove, California  
****August 28, 2012  
****10:15 AM PDT**

"God, and I thought high school homework was hard." Rocky DeSantos pushed his computer away with a frustrated grunt and leaned forward onto his elbows, digging the heel of one hand into his eyes. Adam Park paused in his steady typing from across the table and glanced at his friend over the top of his monitor with an amused smirk.

"Well it might've helped if you had actually taken some notes every once in a while instead of using class time to look up the Playboy mansion on Google Earth."

"Right," Rocky retorted. "And remind me again how long you stayed awake in our last History lecture?"

Adam scoffed. "Which one of us is having trouble again? You know, I was going to offer to help you, but if you're just gonna be an asshole I don't see why I should bother."

Rocky shrugged. "Whatever. I'll just get Billy to help me." He pulled his computer closer and turned to look over his shoulder.

Adam's eyes widened. "Rocky, wait –"

"Hey Billy!" Rocky called out across the busy Youth Center. On the other side of the main exercise room, Billy Cranston was practice sparring with Tommy Oliver on a large floor mat, their movements throwing erratic shadows on the brightly-lit floor; the Center was built with a plentitude of windows – the majority of the light that filled the place on a day like this was natural sunlight. Billy glanced up at the sound of his name just in time for Tommy to launch into a sweep kick that caught the boy in blue completely off guard. Rocky winced as Billy toppled to the mat, letting out a small grunt of pain and surprise as the wind was knocked out of his lungs.

"Smooth," Adam muttered, turning back to his laptop.

"Shit!" Rocky hissed to himself. He hopped out of his chair and jogged across the Youth Center to the edge of the mat. "You OK, Billy?"

"Ow," Billy groaned, taking the hand that Tommy extended and hoisting himself shakily to his feet. "Ernie is in dire need of new safety equipment. These mats are dangerously threadbare."

Tommy stared at Billy blankly for a moment; the other boy laughed and cleared his throat. "Sorry. I forgot I still do that sometimes. Ernie needs new mats. These aren't worth shit anymore."

Tommy laughed. "Yeah, Jase and I kind of wore 'em out." The two of them turned to see Rocky waiting at the edge of the mat. He regarded them for a moment before repeating his question to Billy.

"You OK, man?"

"I'd be a lot better if you hadn't distracted me. Dick move, dude."

Rocky nodded, grimacing. "Then I guess this would be a bad time to ask you for help with my homework?"

Billy responded with a half-serious glare and pivoted on his heel, striding off to the locker room and scooping up his bag as he went.

Rocky watched him go, his face slowly draining of color. "I'm gonna be horribly murdered in my sleep tonight, aren't I?"

Tommy laughed. "Maybe not anything _that_ bad, but Billy can get very inventive when he's pissed off. One time before you guys got here I pulled a practical joke on him that he didn't find funny and he altered the voice modulator in my helmet so everything I said when I was morphed came out sounding like Barney. Took Trini and me three weeks to fix, mostly because Trini couldn't stop laughing."

Rocky smacked himself on the forehead. "Great. So I just put myself on the shit list of a pissed off genius with access to powerful alien technology and a revenge fetish. Fuck my life."

"Fuck your life _hard_," Adam added, coming up behind Rocky with a growing grin on his face. "I cannot _wait_ to see what Billy does to you."

"Rocky's life is fucked again?" The three young men turned their heads in unison toward the new voice that approached them. Tanya Sloan and Kat Hillard strolled arm-in-arm through the Youth Center, their free arms loaded with textbooks. Tanya flashed her winning smile and continued. "Damn, we missed the fun part."

"He distracted Billy while he and Tommy were sparring and Billy went down hard because of it," Adam explained, smirking at Rocky.

Kat sucked in a breath through her teeth. "Wow. Yep, you're screwed."

Tanya elbowed her in the ribs. "Don't worry, Rocko, I'm sure you can talk Billy out of going all _Punisher_ on you." Rocky raised his eyebrows hopefully; Tanya frowned thoughtfully and glanced back at Kat. "Wait. Nope. He's doomed."

"Christ, you guys, don't be so supportive, you're suffocating me."

"You're welcome," Tommy said cheerfully, slapping Rocky on the back. "Now come on, guys, let's go get some smoothies before we have to be in class." The others nodded; as the group turned toward the counter, Tommy took Rocky by both shoulders and steered him through the crowd. He tilted his head back and shouted, "Make a hole! Dead man walking! Coming through!"

Rocky glared at Tommy and wrenched himself free just as Billy reappeared from the locker room and moved toward them. "Uh-oh, Rock, here he comes," Kat whispered in Rocky's ear. "Try hiding behind Tommy. You're certainly short enough."

Rocky was just opening his mouth to retort when the first shockwave knocked the group to the floor and blew out every window in the Youth Center.

Tommy poked his head out from where Tanya, Adam and Kat had landed on top of him and grunted. "Fuck, Billy, I know you're pissed but isn't an earthquake a little extreme?"

"That wasn't me," Billy said, rising shakily to his feet and dusting off his jeans. "And I'm pretty sure it wasn't an earthquake, either."

"Well since Rocky didn't ask anyone to pull his finger in the last five minutes," Tanya joked, drawing a glare from Rocky, "then what –"

The far wall of the Youth Center exploded inward. Huge chunks of concrete, sheetrock and glass were flung into the air, raining down on the people inside. Weight machines, tables and chairs were thrown across the room, slamming into helpless bystanders with devastating force. Peering through the spreading cloud of dust that had begun to fill up the space, obscuring the gaping hole where the wall once stood, Tommy could make out the broken shapes of bodies, debris and rubble from the building littering the floor. He stumbled forward a few steps, desperately scanning the ground before him for anyone showing signs of life. He hadn't gone far before he brushed against a piece of debris and felt something flop against his ankle; bracing himself for the worst, Tommy clenched his teeth and glanced down.

An arm had fallen against his foot, pale, slender fingers scraping on the floor. Tommy saw the chipped pink polish on the fingernails, the small silver ring around the middle finger. He followed the arm's length with his eyes, only to find a ragged, bloody stump where the arm should have met the shoulder, a small nub of bone protruding from the flesh. Tommy's eyes widened in horror; he felt bile rise in his throat as he kicked the limb away and staggered backward until he bumped into Adam hard enough to knock both of them back to the ground.

Tommy landed hard on Adam's stomach; he heard a soft crunch, and then Adam let out a muffled grunt of pain. Tommy quickly rolled off and lay on his back for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut as he fought to get his breathing under control. Suddenly he felt himself being yanked to his feet, Rocky and Billy grabbing an arm each and lifting him bodily off the floor. Kat and Tanya had knelt beside Adam, who had sat up to reveal the shard of glass that had pierced his back just above the hip, less than an inch to the left of his spine. Kat reached out and gingerly pinched it between her fingers, but just that tiny bit of contact was enough to make Adam hiss in pain, his face contorting into an agonized scowl.

"We'll have to take care of it back at the Command Center," Billy said, putting Adam in a sort of loose half-nelson and pulling him to his feet. The boy in green teetered badly on unstable legs; Billy was basically holding him up. "Let's go."

"Wait!" Tommy's hand shot out and grabbed Billy's wrist before he could touch his communicator. "We have to get these people out of here. Just let Adam go back and get help."

Adam nodded gratefully and squeezed his communicator, disappearing in a column of green light that went unnoticed by the frantic crowd. Tommy brushed some dust out of his eyes and turned back to the others. "OK, guys. Evacuation time."

"I think they're one step ahead of you," Kat replied, gesturing toward the mob of people who had begun charging toward the exit, climbing over each other and throwing others out of the way in their rush to escape.

Rocky stepped forward and cupped his hands around his mouth, preparing to yell something at the crowd, but just as he took a deep breath, a shadow fell over them. The five friends turned and looked out through the shattered windows of the Youth Center to see an enormous ball of orange fire plummeting toward them. As it got closer, the very air around them began to rumble and heat up, the rising temperature keeping steady pace with the intensifying vibrations. The five Rangers stared at the object in awe.

"Well," Rocky said softly. "That can't be good."

"_Get down!_" Tommy shouted. As one, the group spun around and sprinted across the room, leaping up the three stairs in their way and charging toward the counter. Billy put his hands on the shoulders of two young women who moved in front of him and steered them toward where the Rangers were going; Tanya scooped up a little boy who sat crying at one of the remaining upright tables as the group ran past, racing toward the bar.

None of them were able to outrun the explosion. The fireball landed just outside the wall of shattered windows and detonated with the force of a ballistic missile, releasing a massive shockwave that picked up the Rangers like paper and flung them across the counter. Tommy slid over the slick surface and went flying past, crashing headfirst onto the tile floor. He felt his teeth slam against each other; stars swam through his vision as he rolled slowly to a stop.

Tanya gripped the little boy close to her chest; the shockwave sent her careening over the counter, and since her hands were full, all she could do was tuck her chin to her chest and brace herself. She landed on her shoulder blades atop the counter and rolled off the other side, her momentum carrying her across the floor until she slid into the back wall. Suddenly, Tanya felt a stabbing pain in her upper right arm. She released her hold on the boy and lifted her arm to discover a thick flow of blood draining from a deep stab wound in her flesh; scanning the surrounding floor, it didn't take her long to find the nail that protruded from a broken piece of 2x4 that lay abandoned against the wall. The boy took one look at the blood pouring out of her injury and dashed away, his face white with panic. "Wait! Come back!" Tanya called after him desperately, wincing as she tried to put weight on her arm. "Ow!" She yelped, bracing herself with her left arm. "Son of a bitch." As quickly as she could, Tanya tore a shred of fabric from her silver top and began wrapping it around the wound.

At the moment the shockwave hit, the two women Billy had shoved in front of him staggered forward and tumbled to the ground. The Blue Ranger himself was sent flying over top of them, crashing into the cash register and the soda fountains as he bounced across the counter and hit the floor chest-first. The air was immediately knocked out of him; he lay there gasping for a moment, gradually beginning to notice the multiple lacerations and bruises that covered his upper body, the machinery he'd been thrown into pounding his flesh and ripping his clothing to shreds. As he pushed himself to his hands and knees, the heavy antique register Ernie kept on the counter toppled over and fell a good two feet to land squarely between Billy's shoulder blades. Billy felt something pop, and the agonizing pain of joint and bone tearing free from muscle turned his vision blurry and made the muscles in his jaw clench involuntarily. He crumpled to the floor again, the machine still on top of him, his face slamming into the tile. Something in his face gave, and his glasses shattered, spilling off his face onto the floor.

The jolt of the impact caught Kat entirely off guard. She felt herself lifted off the ground just as she approached the counter, and thus there wasn't enough room for her to clear it entirely. Kat let out a choked gasp of pain and surprise as her thighs hit the edge of the counter; her body was flipped violently forward, squishing her breasts painfully under her weight, and she wind-milled over the bar to land hard on her tailbone, feeling something give as she collided with the ground. She felt her teeth bite into her tongue; the taste of blood filled her mouth. Kat moved to stand up, but her legs wouldn't obey her – any attempt to elicit movement from them left her only a wave of fresh pain as a result. She slumped back against the counter, spat out a mouthful of blood, and sucked in air, a few hot tears of fear and anger filling up the corners of her eyes. After taking a quick moment to collect herself, Kat pressed her palms against the filthy floor and started to push herself up again. Then she heard the screams.

Rocky had been the furthest of the Rangers from the counter when the shockwave hit; as a result, his arc peaked at a point too far back from the bar to carry him over it. Instead, Rocky slammed into the outer edge of the counter, the sharp edge digging painfully into the space between two of his ribs. He felt several cracks and a flare of intense agony shot through his chest as he toppled to the floor in a heap. Grimacing, clapping a hand over his side – which hurt if he even so much as breathed – Rocky glanced up to see the two women Billy had been trying to help huddled beneath the lip of the counter, cowering pitifully against each other. Gripping his injured ribs with one hand, Rocky pulled himself up to his knees and crawled over to them. "Hey!" He said gently between strained breaths. "It's gonna be OK. Come on, we have to get out of here before-" One of the women screamed and pointed frantically over Rocky's shoulder. He whirled around to see a pillar of fire hurtling directly toward them, not bothering to chew up the scenery around it but extending in their exact direction like a homing missile. Rocky's jaw dropped. "Holy shit!" He grabbed one of the women by the shirt and tried to pull her up, but she refused to let go of her companion, who appeared to have gone completely catatonic from shock. "Come on, we have to –" Rocky dared another glance back over his shoulder and realized that the flame had closed on them, so close now he could feel the blistering heat radiating off of it. He jumped to his feet, trying with all the strength he had in one hand to drag the woman behind him, but she wrenched away from him with such force that Rocky was left with a torn shred of her shirt in his hand. Before he'd even had time to process what had just happened, the flame had moved to within feet of him. Gritting his teeth, Rocky planted one hand on the counter and vaulted over it, feeling the ball of fire pass horrifyingly close to his back; he felt a powerful blast of heat viciously assault the exposed flesh on the back of his neck, but he managed to just barely outrun the surging fire and land mostly intact behind the counter. The flame charged past overhead, blasting its way through the far wall. Just as Rocky was about to stand up to check on the two women he'd left behind, he heard the terrible shrieks of anguish from beyond the bar.

Rocky exchanged worried glances with Kat before the two of them slowly peered over the surface of the counter. What they saw there was the stuff of nightmares.

The two women Billy and Rocky had tried to help had seen the fire pass over the counter and had attempted to make a run for it. They hadn't made it far. Kat and Rocky could only watch as the flames consumed them entirely, covering every inch of their bodies in a blazing inferno. The screams coming from them barely sounded human anymore; by the time the flames had receded, all that was left was a pair of charred husks of flesh that crumbled to the Youth Center floor as though they were made of sand. Kat and Rocky sank back down behind the counter; Rocky ran a hand over his face and Kat clamped one of hers over her mouth, dry heaving through her fingers.

After a shocked moment, Rocky noticed Billy lying on the floor in front of them. He crawled forward and shoved the register off of his friend's back with his shoulder. When Billy didn't move, Rocky prodded him gently and called his name.

"Billy, come on, man, we gotta get movin," Rocky said, shaking Billy a little harder. Kat dragged herself over to them and cradled Billy's head in her lap. After a tense few minutes, Billy groaned softly and blinked rapidly a few times.

"Ow," Billy moaned as he slowly sat up, still appearing a little disoriented. "What just happened?"

"Let's just say Ernie finally called your tab," Rocky replied with a wry smile. At Billy's confused look, Kat leaned forward.

"Don't worry," she said in his ear. "The cash register came completely out of nowhere." She and Rocky laughed weakly, but Billy could tell that it didn't reach their eyes.

"Well at least it wasn't Rocky's fault for once," Billy said, struggling to his feet. Kat and Rocky managed to stand as well, and glanced around at the destruction that encircled them.

"Hold on," Rocky said suddenly. "Where are Tommy and Tanya?" The three of them looked around the area behind the counter, but their friends were nowhere to be seen.

"I think they went – _fuck!_" Billy tried to take a step forward only to have both his knees buckle beneath him. Kat and Rocky managed to catch an arm each, helping him back up and supporting his weight; Rocky winced as Billy's weight came down on his injured side.

"We should teleport you out of here, Billy," Kat said, grabbing Billy's wrist to raise his communicator. Rocky clenched his teeth, the strain of holding Billy up starting to wear on his injured ribs, and cast several nervous glances around the ruined Youth Center, taking a moment to ponder what the hell was going on. A frustrated grunt from Kat drew his attention back.

"What is it?"

Kat thrust Billy's communicator in Rocky's face, as though she'd forgotten Billy was still attached to it. "Damn thing won't work. It won't teleport; it won't even call the Command Center."

Rocky went white. "You're shitting me." He grabbed Billy's communicator with his free hand and squeezed every button as hard as he could.

Nothing.

"Damn it!" Rocky let Billy's arm drop and wiped the sweat off his forehead. Billy examined his communicator thoughtfully and then looked at Rocky's wrist.

"I have an idea," Billy grunted. "You two try yours, see if anything happens." Kat and Rocky shared a skeptical look behind Billy's back. Rocky sighed, shrugged, and raised his wrist.

"What the hell." He pushed the teleportation button and waited.

Nothing. Again.

"Well that was pointless," Rocky muttered, letting his hand flop against his side.

"You're already on my shit list, Rocky, don't push your luck," Billy growled. "The fact that none of our communicators work instead of just mine suggests that there's some unusual external factor blocking our teleportation and transmission capabilities."

"I'd say sentient fire from space qualifies as unusual," Kat grumbled, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "So what do we do?"

Billy thought for a moment. "Maybe if we can just put some distance between us and the source of interfering energy or radiation or…" Billy racked his brain for the word he was looking for, but his exhaustion and disorientation made even thinking hurt. "…whatever, we can teleport out before our communicators are rendered completely useless."

"Right," Rocky panted, scanning the destroyed room. "Maybe we should start by getting the hell out of the Youth Center. I've seen as much shit get blown up as the rest of us but this is just fucking depressing."

"Heard that," Kat said softly, hefting Billy's arm around her shoulders. Together, their unsteady feet crunching and slipping on broken glass, chunks of concrete and the odd puddle of blood, the three Rangers stumbled forward through the devastation, headed for the front door.

* * *

As soon as the fire dissipated, Tommy had rolled to his knees just in time to see Tanya leap from the floor and chase after the kid who'd just slipped free of her grasp. Tommy stood and tried to run, but his head was throbbing; every step he took brought on a new wave of dizziness that almost knocked him back down again. Staggering clumsily forward, throwing a hand up to the wall to support himself, Tommy made his way slowly along the general direction he'd thought Tanya had taken. After an indeterminate amount of time, Tommy rounded a corner and came across the slender black girl pulling open a door set into the right hand wall and moving through it; he frowned at the sight of the small trail of blood that dripped from a wound in Tanya's upper arm.

Tommy reached the door just as it swung shut. He laid a palm on the polished wood surface and took a moment to wonder what the kid Tanya was following was expecting to find in here. The only place this could possibly be was the kitchen where Ernie prepared his burgers and fries, and it wasn't like any of that equipment would do much good as shelter. But Tommy knew better than anyone how irrationally people could act when thrown into situations as intense as this one. He shook his head a little to try and clear it and pushed through the door after Tanya.

He found her standing next to a stainless steel counter, the small boy's arms wrapped tightly around her neck. Beside Tanya stood another familiar figure.

"Ernie?" Tommy blinked rapidly, trying to clear his vision. He thought he recognized the stocky Youth Center owner's heavy build and trademark Hawaiian shirt, but considering the way his head felt, Tommy didn't place much trust in his own eyes right now.

"Tommy?" Yep, that was Ernie's voice all right – he would know it anywhere. The guy sounded incredulous, as though he never expected to see Tommy alive again. "What are – holy hell, Tommy, are you OK?"

"What? Yeah, I…" As he spoke, Tommy suddenly realized how warm and sticky the hand gripping his head felt. He pulled it away and held it in front of his face to find it drenched in thick blood that had begun to seep through his fingers. "Aw shit."

Tanya set the kid down and glanced at Ernie. "Will you watch him for a second?" He nodded and took the kid's hand, and Tanya turned back to Tommy. "Hold on." She carefully tore another strip of cloth off her already ruined shirt, revealing more of her midriff, and wound it around Tommy's head, tying it off as tightly as she could. After a moment, Tanya stepped back and admired her handiwork with a sly grin.

Tommy sighed. "I look like an extra from _Saving Private Ryan_, don't I?"

Tanya shrugged. "Unless anyone in that movie wrapped a head injury in sparkly silver fabric, I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"Are you sure you're OK, Tommy?" Ernie asked again, rubbing the little boy's shoulder as he leaned into the portly restaurateur's side. Tommy nodded and rose to his feet.

"I'm fine, Ernie, just a little dizzy, nothing earth-shattering."

As if triggered by Tommy's words, at that very moment there was another deep rumble, the very ground beneath them vibrating as something began to grow closer. Tommy and Tanya exchanged concerned glances just as the giant red fireball came careening through the ceiling of the room they were standing in, carving a trench through the Youth Center's roof as it hurtled past them. Jagged chunks of debris rained down into the room; Tommy grabbed Tanya and wrenched both of them to the floor, shielding her body with his own. Ernie herded the little boy underneath a particularly sturdy piece of machinery before realizing he couldn't fit under it himself. He turned back into the room and looked Tommy directly in the eye just as a piece of broken concrete the size of a basketball came flying straight toward him.

Tommy was still looking right into Ernie's eyes when the hunk of rock struck him full-on in the face. Huge pieces of skin were grated off of Ernie's cheeks and forehead; his nose was crushed, leaving behind little more than a mangled, bloody mass of flesh. The stocky bartender's head jerked back, a guttural cry of pain escaping his throat as he staggered backward and toppled over. Tommy had to force himself not to gag at the sound Ernie's head made when it bounced against the hard floor, the hollow _thock_ of bone on tile. He moved to climb off of Tanya and run to help, but just as he pushed himself up, a stray piece of rebar dislodged from part of the ceiling and shot through the air toward him. Tommy grabbed Tanya by both shoulders and yanked both of them out of the way, rolling her over him to carry them both across the floor. The piece of rusted steel drove itself into the ground less than six inches from Tommy's head, piercing the tile floor by almost a foot.

Tanya stared down at Tommy, her eyes wide with shock, flinching out of his grip on her injured arm. Tommy offered her a small nod of reassurance before suddenly shifting his gaze over her shoulder, where the newly installed makeshift skylight revealed the shape of another incoming projectile against the clear California sky. "Go check on Ernie," he said softly in her ear. "Right now."

"What?" Tanya whipped her head around the room as though searching for Ernie. "Why? What happened?"

"You'll, uh…find out when you get there," Tommy replied. "Just go. I'll get the kid. We have to get out of here." He gave Tanya a gentle shove and pulled himself out from under her, crawling frantically across a floor pockmarked and rutted by falling debris and approaching the spot where the kid lay huddled beneath a stainless steel counter.

"Hey," he said softly, not wanting to risk taking the harsh approach. "Come on. We're gonna get you out of here." He reached a hand out to the kid, trying to look as comforting as he could without glancing over his shoulder every three seconds to check on the incoming fireball. The kid looked from Tommy's outstretched hand to his face and back as though unable to connect the two as belonging to the same person.

"Tommy," Tanya croaked, interrupting his negotiation. He leaned in further and patted the kid gently on the knee.

"I'll be right back," he whispered before unfolding himself and trotting over to Tanya. "How is he?"

"Not good," Tanya said weakly, stroking Ernie's lacerated cheek. "He's lost a lot of blood and he can't breathe through his nose, and I'm no doctor but for all I know he has brain trauma from a blow with that kind of force. Improvised first aid with pieces of dirty shirts isn't gonna do shit for him, we have to get him to the Command Center with us right now."

Tommy nodded grimly. "All right, take him and go, I'll get the kid." Tanya looped her arm around Ernie's and pressed a button on her communicator.

Nothing.

"It isn't working," she said, stunned. Tommy frowned and tried his own. When he got the same result – or lack thereof – he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well then," he started, quickly realizing he had no idea what to do for Ernie right now. There was obviously no way to call an ambulance, and even he and Tanya put together couldn't carry Ernie's sizeable bulk as far as would be required to reach safety. There was only one option available. "I guess we should go back and find Billy. Maybe he knows something about why the communicators aren't working."

Tanya frowned and rose slowly to her feet. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, the two Rangers had a powerful sense of something very dangerous approaching. The two of them shared a glance.

"You feel that?"

"That distinct sensation of being hopelessly screwed? Oh yeah."

There was a deafening boom from above them, so loud that it sent yet another tremor through the ground they stood on. Tommy spun on his heel and saw what looked like an enormous silver firework that had just bloomed in the sky overhead. As he watched, the thing appeared to blur slightly, like drops of water sliding down the outside of a car window. Then it hit him.

Water.

_Oh my god._

He lunged toward Tanya, tackling her to the ground and rolling them under a nearby table. She squirmed in protest, his rough movements driving daggers of pain into her injured arm. Tommy took his weight off of her and slid carefully to his right, keeping as much of his body under the table as possible. He was just about to poke his head out for another look up when the silver liquid began to fall, splashing to the ground around them in huge, thick drops that reminded him of liquid mercury. They pooled all around them, not flowing like water would have but instead appearing to stick in place on the tiles, where they began to give off a dull silvery glow. Tommy looked up and realized that the kid had crawled out from where he'd been hidden under the counter and stared up at the falling liquid. Tommy opened his mouth to call out a warning, but before he had a chance to make a sound, the kid was hit by several drops of the stuff; as Tommy watched, the boy went rigid, freezing in place and giving off a faint silver glow of his own.

"Ernie?" Tanya's voice carried such a tone of anxiety that Tommy was able to tear his gaze away and turn to follow his friend's eyes. The owner of the Youth Center still lay prone on his back, but it appeared he had lifted his arms to try and leverage himself to a sitting position when the strange liquid had landed on him. He, too, now lay frozen, rooted to the ground, glowing that dull silvery color. Tanya reached out to crawl in Ernie's direction, but some part of Tommy he had no control over shot his hand out to grab her wrist and yank her back. She turned and glared at him. He dropped her hand immediately and held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Tan, wait. Don't touch that silvery stuff. Whatever it is, look what it did to Ernie; if we touch it, it might do the same thing to us."

Tanya scanned the room apprehensively, observing the puddles of thick liquid that coated much of the floor space or dripped down the sides of counters and tables. At one spot at the edge of their table, a thin stream began to trickle over the side, pouring onto the floor. Tanya curled her legs up to her chest and turned to face Tommy. "So what do we do? We're completely surrounded," she said, gesturing at the moat of silver fluid that engulfed the outside of the table. "We have to find some way to get across this stuff without touching it."

The two Rangers made eye contact as the idea dawned on them simultaneously.

"The table!" Moving to opposite ends of their covered space, Tommy and Tanya pressed their palms against the bottom of the table and slowly stood up, taking care not to step in any of the liquid or get any drips on them. Then they found a spot on the floor where the table would fit between them and Ernie and readied themselves.

"Ready?" Tanya breathed, licking her lips nervously. Tommy nodded. "OK, on three. One…two…_three!_" The two of them moved as one, flipping the table over and dropping it upside down onto the floor beside them, creating a bridge of safety across the dangerous fluid. Tommy had barely lowered his arms before Tanya was halfway across the table. She knelt carefully in a bare spot at Ernie's side and hesitated, unsure of whether she could touch him.

_Christ that girl can move,_ Tommy thought, following Tanya across the upturned table. Her hand still hovered over Ernie's neck, where she clearly intended to check for a pulse. He watched as she slowly moved her hand closer and closer, until it was almost touching Ernie's skin, before jerking it back and shaking it as though a match had just burned down between her fingers.

"Mother_fucker_," Tanya hissed, flexing and straightening her fingers and shaking her hand a little more. Tommy raised an eyebrow at her. She gripped her fingers in her other hand and said, "I don't know what this silvery shit is but it shocked me or bit me or…something when I tried to touch it. Note to self: refrain from touching silvery alien space rain in the future."

Tommy chuckled softly and held a hand as close to Ernie's mouth as he dared. Fortunately, the only thing he felt was a steady, almost rhythmic flow of air from the portly man's throat. Tommy sighed and let his hand fall back down to rest on his knee. "Well, he's breathing. If we can get the communicators working we can try to figure out a way to teleport him out, see if Zordon and Alpha know anything we can try."

"How are we gonna do that if we can't even fucking touch him?" Tanya retorted. Tommy recoiled a little in surprise at the force of her outburst; she gasped and laid a hand on his arm. "Sorry. This whole thing's getting really intense. I guess I'm wound a bit tight right now."

Tommy wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry about it," he whispered. She smiled and the two of them stood up and looked around them. "We still have to find Billy," Tommy said louder, turning toward the door. "We're not doing anybody any good here."

Tanya seemed reluctant – as they moved across the room, her gaze fell on the boy she'd followed in here, lying stiff and still on the floor – and Tommy had to nudge her several times before she finally tore her eyes away and followed him out the door, neither one of them making any move to stop it as it swung shut behind them.

* * *

"Much as I hate to admit it, I'm actually jealous of Adam," Kat remarked as she and Rocky half-carried Billy out the front door of the Youth Center. "At least he had the good sense to get hurt _before_ our communicators crapped out on us."

Rocky snorted and wiped his forehead on his sleeve. "That's Adam for you, always with the good sense." The three of them picked their way delicately across the street in front of the Youth Center, trying to ignore the scene of devastation that lay around them.

The place looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off. The street was riddled with craters and cracks, giant chunks of asphalt strewn randomly about the landscape. Every building in sight had massive pieces blown out of it, like they'd had bites taken out of them by a giant child. The sky had turned gray with the thick layer of dust and ash kicked up by the recent barrage; somewhere off in the distance, Kat could hear screams, and the air carried the scents of burning rubber and blood.

"Holy crap, this place looks like something out of Revelation," Rocky muttered, stepping carefully over a piece of charred, twisted metal that could once have been a part of a car.

"Leave it to the lapsed Catholic to know an apocalypse when he sees one," Billy retorted weakly, spitting out a mouthful of blood as he did so.

"Don't let my mother hear you say that," Rocky replied, throwing Kat a concerned glance. She nodded and tightened her grip on Billy's arm a little. Kat had grown more and more worried about her friend from the moment the three of them had been about to go after Tanya and Tommy; Billy had barely even been able to stand, let alone walk, and now he was coughing up blood. Kat was no doctor, but she'd been a Ranger long enough to know when someone was more gravely injured than was obvious upon first glance. If he'd been morphed, that would be one thing – he'd have healed completely by now. But Kat knew it was far too late for that – just to activate a morph required a certain amount of strength in order to withstand the rush of power. If any of the three of them morphed now, the sheer volume of energy from the morphing grid would be enough to wound them even more severely – or in Billy's case, kill them. Their only option at this point was to get back to the Command Center, get themselves fixed up (which they could do in hours at most as long as nobody was hurt even worse than she feared) and regroup.

Kat just hoped they could survive that long.

"OK, Billy," Kat said, stopping about three hundred yards from the Youth Center entrance. "Do you think this is far enough?"

Billy was breathing heavily now, even with Kat and Rocky both holding him up. Between gasps for air, he managed to say, "Only…one way…to…find out." Rocky nodded and pressed a button on his communicator. Still nothing.

"Shit," Kat muttered. Then she noticed something up ahead. One of the taller buildings nearby appeared to still be structurally intact, its rectangular form towering over the destruction. "Wait a minute. Billy – what if we can get to higher ground? Would that make any difference?"

Billy took a long moment to think; so long in fact that at one point Kat was afraid he'd passed out. Finally, he answered her. "I can honestly say I have no idea," he said. "I suppose since most of the explosions are happening at ground level that the concentration of radiation or whatever it is causing the interference should lessen the higher off the ground we get, but…" he trailed off and took a moment to catch his breath. He was wheezing now, every breath taken with obvious effort. Kat fought down the rising panic that threatened to break through her calm and forced herself to keep her balance and keep Billy upright. "That's just a theory. I have no way of knowing one way or another whether height will make any difference."

"Frankly, Kat, I don't know if getting any higher off the ground is a very good idea," Rocky grunted from Billy's other side. Kat leaned forward and frowned at him. Her Hispanic friend smiled grimly and pointed to the sky. "Especially not if it means getting any closer to _that_ thing."

Kat followed Rocky's finger and gasped at what she saw. Hovering in the air above them, perhaps four or five thousand feet off the ground, was an enormous object that Kat could only imagine to be some form of spaceship. It was massive; even from this distance Kat was awestruck by just how large the thing was. It appeared to have been constructed entirely at random, pieces of varying shapes and sizes simply thrown together in no discernible order, lending the vessel an air of chaos almost as imposing as its size.

"What the bloody hell is that?" Kat's Australian lilt broke through the stunned silence that had engulfed them, the three tired youths standing dumbfounded on a ruined street in the midst of a destroyed city. Before any of them could answer, they saw the glassy black surface of the floating object begin to light up, a spectacular array of colors flashing across it faster and faster until the whole thing seemed to shine. Suddenly, the light vanished as quickly as it had appeared and the monolith released a cloud of multicolored fireballs; Kat was vaguely reminded of blowing on a dandelion and watching the buds float away.

"Uh, guys?" Billy's voice was barely audible at this point. Kat and Rocky immediately gave him their full attention, each of them worried Billy had somehow gotten worse. Instead, though, their friend kept his gaze locked on the display above them. "Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but one of those things is headed right for us."

It didn't take Kat and Rocky long to realize he was right. A flaming piece of rock that glowed a brilliant shade of turquoise was falling straight at them, arcing through the sky on a beeline for their position.

"_Move!_" Kat screamed, shoving her friends to one side. The threesome took a hard right and charged forward along the street, searching desperately for a place to take cover. Just as they reached a relatively undamaged portion of road, the fireball impacted less than fifty yards behind them and detonated in a shockwave even more powerful than any of the others. It flung all three of them several yards forward, sending them sprawling painfully onto the concrete. A nearby car that had survived the other attacks relatively undamaged was sent flipping through the air, riding the shockwave on a collision course with their location. The already injured Rangers struggled slowly to their feet and dragged themselves down the middle of the ruined street as the dome of blue green energy charged toward them, showing no sign of slowing down.

* * *

Tommy and Tanya came barreling through a side door of the destroyed Youth Center just in time to see the distant figures of their friends dash to one side in the wake of a giant ball of turquoise fire that crashed into the ground about six football fields away from the Youth Center. Tanya vaguely heard Tommy say something, but before he'd verbalized an entire thought, she was gone, charging across the ruined grass and pavement to intercept the others. As her legs pounded against the crumbling surfaces of her beloved city, Tanya realized that two of her friends were carrying the other between them; they were in no condition to outrun the wave of green energy that spread across the ground – or the car that flew toward them in the wake of the tremor. Then Tanya realized something that sent a chill down her spine.

They didn't know what they were running from.

"Guys!" Tanya's voice disappeared almost as soon as it left her mouth, carried away by the harsh wind kicked up by the impact. She took a few more bounding steps forward and skidded to a stop, raising her arms to cup her hands around her mouth. "Hey guys! Get down! You've got to take cover!"

Lowering her arms, Tanya quickly realized that this was not going to work. She clenched and released her right fist a few times to keep the feeling in her arm, which had gone frighteningly numb. Then she raced forward again, aiming for where she thought the others would be when she reached them. Some distant Ranger instinct told her of Tommy's presence, just behind her and to the left, but she made no move to acknowledge him; instead she drove herself faster toward her friends, desperately trying to reach them before whatever it was that was closing in on them caught up.

She and Tommy reached Kat and Rocky – whom she now realized carried an exhausted-looking Billy between them – at just about the same time. Kat was the closest to them, and Tanya dove at her, throwing both herself and her best friend to the hard pavement just as Tommy tackled Billy and Rocky out of the way. It was in that moment, as she watched the three guys roll out of the street and over the curb, that Tanya realized a fatal flaw in her actions. She and Kat now lay in the center of the road, helpless in the path of the oncoming car that hurtled toward them like a bullet from a gun. Tanya looked up just in time to catch the glint of sunlight off the car's front grille as the vehicle closed to within feet of her and Kat.

Time seemed to screech to a halt; the entire world froze in place like a special effects shot in one of Rocky's shitty action movies as the front end of the car plowed into the ground less than a foot in front of Tanya's face. She saw every detail as the front end of the car crumpled like an accordion, the impact sending a ripple through the hood as though it was water. As the car's forward momentum brought it flipping over her, Tanya flattened herself to the ground and flung out an arm to hold Kat prone beside her. Through the car's windshield she could see the small, heart-shaped pendant that hung from the rearview mirror, the leopard-print cover that clung to the steering wheel; the car continued forward, catapulting itself over the two female Rangers and smashing onto the pavement a few feet beyond Kat.

As time finally sped back up to full speed again, Tanya let out the breath she suddenly realized she'd been holding and rolled to her right to get the weight off of her wounded arm. That was when she saw the green wave of energy closing in on her. Unable to make herself move, Tanya clenched her hands into fists and braced herself.

The wave dissipated less than an inch from the tip of her nose.

Tanya blinked a few times in disbelief before rising to her feet and pulling Kat up behind her. Her gold-clad friend dusted herself off and offered Tanya a small smile.

"I would say thank you if you hadn't scraped most of the skin off my knees," Kat said, holding Tanya's hand as the pair walked back toward the others.

"Well if not for me they would be scraping _you_ off the street with a spatula," Tanya countered, shaking a finger in Kat's face. Her friend rolled her eyes.

"Bullshit. I had the situation totally under control."

"Oh, really? Tell that to the aneurysm you almost gave me."

"O ye of little faith."

"O ye of little _brains_."

Kat paused for a moment. "Idiot."

"Bitch."

"Skank."

"Kiwi."

Kat whirled on Tanya, who just smiled at her innocently and winked. "What?"

"Don't even joke like that," Kat said solemnly, jabbing a finger into Tanya's face. Tanya's eyes crossed for a moment as she stared at Kat's fingertip; she flicked her eyes up into Kat's baby blue ones and held a straight face for as long as she could. She and Kat cracked at about the same time, and dissolved into laughter together. Tanya didn't fail to notice, however, that as Kat's laughter faded, her friend turned and gazed wistfully at the ruined Youth Center.

"Kat, honey?" Tanya said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder. "You OK?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah," Kat replied, waving her off. "Just a few things happened back there I'd like to do over."

Tanya nodded. "Believe me, I know the feeling. Want to talk about it?"

Kat glanced off to one side. "Later, I promise. Right now, we'd better get going before the guys leave us behind."

Tanya turned to see Tommy and Rocky already carrying Billy to the nearest structurally intact building to test their higher ground theory. She sighed a little and took Kat's hand. "I'll hold you to that."

With that, the two hurried to catch up with the others, eager to leave this scene of devastation behind as quickly as possible.


	4. Bruised and Scarred

**Scorched Earth**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just the right to put them through hell for my own amusement. Saban owns everything Power Rangers related. Anything you don't recognize is mine. **

**Plot Summary: When a nameless evil invades Earth, killing everything in its path, the first eleven Power Rangers must face an enemy beyond anything they've ever encountered; and this time, they'll be pushed farther than some of them are willing to go. **

**Timeline: **_**Very **_**AU from the moment Zeo started; slightly AU from the moment Jason, Zack and Trini left. Takes place midway through Zeo, only Zeo didn't happen. Jason, Trini and Zack are still attending the Peace Conference in Geneva, Kim is still in Florida training for the Pan Globals, and Aisha is still in Africa. When they left, however, their powers weren't transferred – they still have them, and five new powers were created for their replacements. Also, that whole letter thing didn't happen, either. The current team, led by Tommy, is Billy, Rocky, Adam, Kat and Tanya.**

**Pairings: Jason/Trini, Tommy/Kim, Rocky/Aisha; others may come later.**

**A/N: This story assumes that the Rangers were juniors in high school when they got their original powers, meaning they are currently in their second year of college, putting their ages at approximately 20-21.**

**Warning: Rated M for graphic violence, language, crude humor and disturbing content, including major character death. (Nothing too explicit as far as sexual content, I'll keep that PG-13.) Essentially, this is what I imagine an R-rated Power Rangers movie would've looked like. If only, right?**

**A/N 2: Sorry about the wait. Life's gotten a bit crazy recently. Read the warning above especially closely before you read this chapter - it's about to kick in hardcore. Big shout out to everybody who's read, reviewed, followed and favorited.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: "Bruised and Scarred"**

"**He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."  
****-Friedrich Nietzsche**

**Command Center Main Chamber  
****Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****11:15 AM PDT**

Adam poked his head through the doorway into the Main Chamber. He'd teleported himself straight to the Medical Bay, and utilized one of the incredibly advanced pieces of medical equipment the Command Center had on hand to gently extract the shard of glass from his lower back. After taking a moment to ensure that he hadn't sustained any nerve damage and administering some antibiotics, he'd had the wound closed using a precision laser that cauterized the flesh together, popped a dose of painkillers and slapped a patch of gauze onto his back. Once that was done, all he had to do was grab a quick change of clothes from his private quarters and head back to the Main Chamber to see what the hell was going on.

Still slightly favoring his left leg and scratching absentmindedly at his bandage, Adam slowly swung the door to the Main Chamber open and moved quietly inside, hoping not to disturb whatever Zordon and Alpha may have been doing.

That was quickly rendered unnecessary.

"Adam." Zordon's voice boomed from his time-warp tube and echoed through the Chamber; as usual, Adam even felt the ground under his feet vibrate softly. The giant, shimmering head turned in his direction and appeared to examine him before continuing. "Are you all right?"

Emboldened, Adam strode into the Chamber with a bit more purpose. "I'm fine, Zordon," he replied, gesturing to himself. "It's the others back at the Youth Center I'm worried about. I should get back there and help them."

"Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi! I'm afraid that's impossible!" Alpha 5 lamented, glancing up momentarily from where he labored frantically at a console near the Viewing Globe. Adam frowned at the little robot inquisitively. "There's some kind of interstellar radiation coating the area, making teleportation in or out nearly impossible."

One particular word in that sentence caught Adam's ears. "_Nearly_ impossible? So there is a way back there."

Alpha paused what he was working on and turned to face the green-clad young man. "In order to teleport into the contaminated area, we would need to put you down somewhere more than thirty feet off the ground, like the roof of a building. Not only would that take incredibly precise aiming, timing and power usage, but we would have no way of knowing if the surface you were landing on was at any reliable level of structural integrity. You could end up on a roof only for it to collapse beneath you."

"Shit," Adam hissed, running a hand through his hair. He turned back into the center of the Chamber. "What about communications? If we can get through to the others we can tell them that they need to get thirty feet off the ground to teleport."

"Unfortunately, Adam, this strange radiation has affected communications as well," Zordon said gravely. "We have had no luck contacting any of the other Rangers."

Adam exhaled slowly through his nose. "OK…" he thought carefully for a moment, forcing himself not to panic. He had to figure out where he could do the most good. He couldn't do anything for his five friends at the Youth Center right now – he'd just have to hope they found high ground to teleport from. What he _could_ do was figure out what the hell had just happened out there so when they did show up he'd be able to supply them with some pertinent information. "So what the hell is happening out there, Zordon? One minute everything's fine and the next the whole Youth Center's being blown to hell. Have Rita and Zedd finally grown a pair?"

Something happened as that question left Adam's mouth that he'd never expected to see in his entire life, something that frightened him more than he was willing to admit. The mention of Rita and Zedd caused Zordon to _visibly flinch_ – and even after Adam finished asking his question, the Eltarian sage actually hesitated. As Adam looked on, the color quickly draining out of his face, the being he'd come to think of almost as a father, who he'd learned to trust as one of the wisest beings in the universe, actually looked as though he were at a complete loss for words. It was at that moment that the truth finally struck home.

They were all in some deep shit.

"Zordon?" Adam's entreaty was softer, almost meek; he hated how childish his voice sounded, like a toddler begging a parent for safety during a thunderstorm. Zordon seemed to understand.

"The situation is quite grave, Adam," the Eltarian said. "Angel Grove is not the only city under attack. Alpha, show Adam the printouts."

Without even turning his head from what he was doing, Alpha extended his hand toward Adam, a small stack of papers clenched in it. Adam took it and began leafing through, his eyes slowly widening as the events of the morning played out on the pages before him. After a moment, he froze halfway down one page and looked up to demand an explanation from Zordon for what he was seeing.

That was when the others teleported in. None of them looked any better off than Adam had been; in fact, most of them looked worse. Billy was practically dead on his feet, leaning on both Tommy and Rocky for support; those two looked pretty bad themselves, Tommy bleeding profusely through the makeshift bandage tied around his forehead and Rocky gripping his left side with his free hand, barely able to put any weight on his left foot. As the three turned away from him, Adam gasped at the vicious burns that had savaged the back of Rocky's neck, his flesh blackened and blistered like a charred hamburger. Tanya and Kat had landed nearby; Kat's legs had been badly lacerated, a cluster of angry bruises colored any exposed skin above her waist, and as Adam looked on, she did something incredibly un-Kat-like, hocking a large mouthful of bloody mucus onto the Command Center floor. Out of all of them, Tanya appeared to be the least injured, her only visible wound being the trickle of blood from her upper left arm. Adam lurched toward them and gently took half of Billy's weight off of Rocky's shoulders before his friend passed out on the spot.

"Tommy," Adam said gently but firmly, pulling his leader out of a sort of daze. "Do you think you can walk as far as the Med Bay?"

Tommy didn't answer, just nodded a little, and he and Adam moved Billy haltingly forward toward the main corridor. As they moved past the girls, Adam caught Tanya's eye. "Can you two help get Rocky to the Med Bay? He looks pretty bad."

"I got it," Rocky retorted brusquely, pushing past Adam and leading them out of the Main Chamber. The other three male rangers filed through the doorway one at a time; Billy let out a small groan of pain as Tommy bumped him into the doorframe. Adam watched Rocky storm down the hallway and shove the door to Med Bay open with a frustrated grunt.

"Fucking Reds," Adam muttered, adjusting Billy's weight. He heard what he hoped was an amused chuckle and not another moan of pain from Billy as he and Tommy helped him down the hall. By the time they reached the Med Bay, the two of them were dragging Billy along, his toes scraping on the floor. Adam and Tommy lay Billy down on one of the five available medical beds and let the machines go to work. Rocky had already made it to another, and Adam went to lead Tommy to the third, only to see him already heading back toward the exit. Without hesitation, Adam stepped in front of Tommy and put a hand on his chest.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

Tommy glared at him. "I have work to do."

Adam nodded. "Yeah, it's called _not dying_. Now go put your ass on the bed or I swear to god I'll do it for you."

Tommy smiled weakly and raised an eyebrow. "You really think you could?"

"Dude, it wouldn't even be fair," Adam scoffed, nudging Tommy gently back. "Now go lie down before I have to prove it to you."

Tommy seemed to begrudgingly agree and finally took the bed at the end of the row. Adam glanced around the Medical Bay, still squinting a little in the harsh fluorescent lights. The room was meticulously clean, the five beds and their attached equipment gleaming in the lights. The bed Tommy chose was fitted, like the others, with an extensive array of sophisticated medical apparatuses from Aquitar, Triforia and Eltar that worked directly with the morphing grid, giving them the capacity to heal many injuries that would be crippling or even lethal to normal humans in a matter of only a few hours – as long as the patient was both linked to the grid themselves and not injured too severely. A sixth, enclosed berth sat in the far corner of the room, into which someone suffering from injuries that might be life-threatening even to a Ranger could be directly teleported if necessary. They'd never had to use that bed before, to Adam's knowledge; he hoped it would stay that way. From Adam's quick visual assessment, he guessed that Tommy and Rocky could at the very least be on their feet and alert – if still a little woozy – in only a few minutes. Billy, on the other hand, he feared may take quite a bit longer to heal.

As the machines whirred to life and got to work on Tommy's injuries, Adam turned on his heel and trotted back through the main corridor and into the Main Chamber, where Kat and Tanya stood waiting for him, hovering near the console on which Alpha was working. Tanya glanced up at him when he entered.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself," he answered with a small smile. "You two feeling all right?"

"I'm OK," Tanya said. "I can wait until everyone else has had a turn in the chop shop before I need to use it."

"Billy hates when we call it that, you know," Kat interjected without looking up. "And I could probably use a turn myself, but I am not leaving this room until we find out what happened out there."

The three of them looked up at Zordon. The old sage seemed reluctant to tell them anything, but after a moment he relented.

"We first heard about these attacks approximately two hours ago," Zordon began. "Strangely, though, none of our alarms were ever set off, and none of our sensors picked up any sort of alien activity."

"Wait," Tanya put in, holding up a finger. "This is something Rita and Zedd cooked up, right? Has to be."

"That was our assumption as well," Alpha said. "But then we finally got a visual lock on the Moon Palace and found…this."

The Viewing Globe suddenly lit up, and Adam, Kat and Tanya crowded around it. The image they beheld was jaw-dropping. Rita and Zedd's Moon Palace lay in smoldering ruins, the once impressive tower toppled over onto the lunar surface. The smoking piles of debris were splashed with several different colors of blood, and here and there the Rangers could see the odd piece of Putty – an arm, a leg, a few heads.

"What the fuck…?" Adam couldn't verbalize the shock he felt; he and the girls simply turned back to Zordon, bewildered looks on their faces.

"We can find no traces of Rita, Zedd, Goldar, Rito, Scorpina, Squatt, Baboo or Finster anywhere within the entire range of our sensors," Zordon said somberly. "We can only assume they've been destroyed by whatever it is that's attacking Earth."

"You mean we still don't know?" Kat asked incredulously, leaning against a console for balance. When Zordon didn't answer, she added, "Is there anything we _do_ know?"

"I'm afraid our knowledge of this situation is very limited, Katherine," Zordon replied. "And the information we do have is not reassuring." The Viewing Globe lit up again, and the three Rangers present examined it as Zordon continued. "All we know at this point is that these unknown invaders don't match any of our databases of evil races in the known universe, and that over the course of the last two hours, one of their ships has attacked nearly every major city, national capital, and major global political site on the entire planet."

"What do you mean _every major city_?" Kat demanded. "How many of these bastards are there?"

"Almost every city in the world with a population greater than three million has been completely devastated," Zordon said. "Along with the headquarters of every international political organization – the United Nations, NATO, the ICC, and others – and every national capital, meaning we must assume that every major world leader is either dead or incapacitated."

"Holy shit," Adam breathed, staring at the floor. "That's over a hundred cities, probably more than a billion people. There's gonna be anarchy all over the world."

"Not to mention there must be thousands of these things up there," Tanya added.

"I'm afraid there's more, Rangers." All three heads in the room jerked toward the sound of Zordon's voice. "There were four sites hit which seemed anomalous to the original pattern. Angel Grove was one."

Something seemed to dawn on Tanya. Her head began slowly shaking back and forth. "Oh my god."

"The others are Miami, Florida…" Adam frowned a little. "Geneva, Switzerland…" His mouth went dry. "And a seemingly random location over Western Africa."

"Wait a minute," Kat said, sounding shell-shocked. "Miami, as in…"

"Kimberly." They turned. Tommy stood in the doorway, still looking like hell but at least seeming stable on his feet. Suddenly Rocky came up behind him, not looking much better.

"And Africa, as in Aisha."

Tanya turned back to Adam. "And Geneva, as in…"

Adam nodded grimly. "The Peace Conference."

The five Rangers exchanged several shocked, tense glances before Kat looked up at Zordon and spoke softly, an unmistakable tremor in her voice. "They deliberately went after the only four places on the entire planet where Power Rangers lived. The only reason they would do that would be that they…" She trailed off, not wanting to voice the idea out loud.

Adam did it for her, closing his eyes somberly as he did.

"They know who we are."

* * *

**Command Center Main Chamber  
****Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****Noon PDT**

Even before the pink sparks that surrounded her had entirely dissipated, the gathered Rangers in the Main Chamber could tell that Kimberly was reaching out for something when she teleported in. She landed on the right side of the room near Zordon's tube, both arms extended before her, fingers grasping frantically for something that was no longer there. Kat, who had been staring blankly at the Viewing Globe for the last ten minutes, turned at the sound of her teleportation and frowned at Kim's position, her face radiating obvious concern. Adam and Tanya froze in the doorway where they'd just returned from taking Rocky back to his quarters, their faces draining of color at the look of horror on Kim's face, her mouth open slightly as though about to call out to someone. Tanya dug her fingers into Adam's arm without even thinking about it; he spared a glance down at her hand, then another at her profile, before turning back to Kim.

For his part, Tommy's face lit up like a kid on Christmas. He seemed to completely disregard Kim's expression or her outstretched arms; grinning from ear to ear, he charged across the Chamber and threw himself at her, squeezing her against his body even as she refused to acknowledge his presence. They stood there awkwardly for a moment, Kim still locked into her original posture, staring through the Command Center floor into whatever scene she'd left behind as Tommy tried to embrace her, before Kim blinked a few times and came violently back to herself, batting Tommy's arms away and staggering back. She looked wildly about the Command Center as though unable to comprehend that she was there before fixing Tommy in a deadly glare.

"The hell is wrong with you?" Kim jabbed an accusatory finger in Tommy's face, stepping aggressively toward him even as he raised his hands in front of him. "There were two people, _right next to me_, depending on me to get them out of there and you made me just leave them behind."

"Come on, Kim," Tommy countered calmly. "Think this through for five seconds, would you? You know damn well that we can only teleport somebody if they're either wearing a communicator or they're touching someone who is and we can pick up a life sign. If we overrode that we could risk teleporting Putties or even monsters in here."

"Bullshit." Kim made a sharp, sweeping gesture with her right arm. "We've been using that thing on inanimate objects since day one; we've teleported weapons, Zord parts, scanners, those portal generators Billy built…hell, I think we even teleported a car in here once. But when there are two _people_, two living, breathing people who need our help, they get left behind because you're too fucking incompetent at working the consoles to pick up on their vitals."

The others gaped at Tommy and Kim in stunned silence, except for Alpha, who seemed far too involved in his attempts at locating Aisha to even acknowledge the Rangers' presence. Zordon seemed to be elsewhere, his blurry image absent from the tube for a moment while he worked on retrieving their friends in Switzerland. Tommy blinked a few times, his mouth working soundlessly for a moment before he fixed his jaw and crossed his arms harshly across his chest.

"Look, I get that you disagree with my account of how things happened. Really, I do. It must've been terrifying being down there with no powers, no way out, no way of knowing what the hell was going on –"

"Not as terrifying as having to teleport away while two other people had to just stand there and watch me –"

"Will you let me fucking finish?" Kim snapped her mouth shut and scowled at him. Tommy stepped toward her and went on. "I get that things down there were hard, trust me – we all just watched the Youth Center get blown to shit. But that gives you no right to get in here and just start questioning anyone else's abilities or intentions. You know damn well that we all want the same thing here."

Kim laughed bitterly. "Right. Of course we do." Kim glanced around the room, feeling the tense eyes of her three other friends still drilling into her. She made eye contact with each of them before turning back to Tommy. "Why don't we just skip the part where you put on the whole unshakeable leader act and actually get to the real issue here?"

Tommy narrowed his eyes at her. "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Kim shook her head. "Unbelievable. You know, for someone who's supposed to be responsible for coming up with battle plans and making strategic decisions, you do a _very_ good job of playing dumb." She let her bag fall to the floor, the strap catching briefly on a shred of her ruined leotard. The slap of the fabric against the hard floor made Kat and Tanya jump; nobody noticed Tanya grip Adam's arm again. As Kim moved toward Tommy to continue, Zordon's face suddenly came into focus.

"Rangers," he said, snapping five heads toward him. "Jason, Trini and Zachary have arrived in the Medical Bay. All three have sustained significant injuries." He started to say more, but Tommy had already torn his eyes away and made a move for the door. Kim was on his heels immediately, and the two of them pushed roughly past Adam and Tanya and stormed into the corridor; their raised voices could be heard even through the heavy door that slid shut behind them. Adam, Tanya and Kat exchanged looks as another door opened and Rocky came back into the room, looking significantly less worked up than he'd been ten minutes ago. All three turned to face him, and Rocky froze in his tracks at their looks.

"Holy shit, what happened in here? Where's Tommy?"

"Kim's back." Adam motioned at the door behind him with his head. "She and Tommy had a mutual bitch fit, Jason, Trini and Zack might be dying, Aisha's still missing and Earth might be destroyed at any second." He shrugged. "Also, I think I may have left my car unlocked."

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Sounds like a Tuesday."

Rocky moved further into the room and stood next to Kat, leaning against a console and running a hand over his face.

"Have I mentioned fuck our lives?" He let out a frustrated sigh and glanced up at the floor in front of him just as Aisha appeared on it. There was a collective gasp as the four other Rangers in the room converged on her, pulling her quickly to her feet.

"You know," she said, her voice sounding strangely raw. "You guys' timing really sucks."

* * *

**Command Center Medical Bay  
****Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****12:30 PM PDT**

At the sound of the Med Bay doors sliding open, Tommy and Kim had turned to see what awaited them inside. Everything had just stopped. Scathing comebacks and biting sarcasm had withered and died on their tongues in seconds, their argument completely forgotten in the wake of the terrible sight that lay before them, the harsh, clinical lights not leaving anything to the imagination.

Jason lay on the bed closest to them, eyes closed, chest rising and falling erratically as the machinery surrounding him worked furiously on his numerous injuries. From their position, frozen in the doorway, Tommy and Kim could see the gruesome state of the soles of Jason's feet, skin literally dangling from them in ragged, bloody flaps; his entire body was covered in lacerations and bruises, his right shoulder had swollen to a hideous size, and a steady trickle of blood ran down the leg of the table from a wound to the back of his head. Billy and Trini lay beside him, not looking much better. Tommy knew about Billy's condition, so that wasn't as much of a shock, and at least he was conscious.

Trini was a different story. The Yellow Ranger lay in the bed against the far wall, her entire body covered in cuts and bruises, her clothes darkened and stiff with dried blood. Several of her fingers were twisted at impossible angles and a small piece of jagged bone – Tommy hoped it was only a rib – protruded through the skin of her chest. A lump had begun to form in his throat at the sight: the two people before him were two of the strongest people he knew, in every sense of the word, and right now…they looked so damn _fragile_.

Kim staggered toward Jason as if in a daze, one hand clamped over her mouth, her face draining quickly of blood. Tommy could only watch as she slowly approached his bedside and gently curled her fingers around his hand. Kim was visibly struggling to hold back tears, the shock at seeing her big brother like this made even more intense by the fact that her best friend lay two beds away in just as severe condition. Her free hand gripped the edge of the bed, knuckles turning a frightening shade of white as she fought to keep her knees from buckling beneath her.

Just as Tommy finally overcame his shock and took his first tentative step into the Med Bay, Jason groaned softly and stirred a little. Tommy's legs seemed to work by themselves, propelling him across the room and practically throwing himself against the bed on which his best friend lay. Kim cradled Jason's hand in both of hers and held it up to her cheek, where she nuzzled against it like a kitten.

"Jason?" Kim's voice was barely audible; a quavering, mewling noise that sounded to Tommy like it could just as easily have come from a kicked puppy. Tommy edged carefully toward her, as if she was a deer he'd found in the woods at sunrise. He gently draped one arm around Kim's shoulders; thankfully, this time, instead of shoving him off, she leaned into him and clenched Jason's hand tighter. Tommy squeezed Kim's shoulder and laid his free hand on Jason's stomach, as if to reassure himself that Jason was still there. He was just about to whisper a few comforting clichés in Kim's ear when Jason spoke.

"Could I have my hand back, please?"

Kim's jaw dropped open. She stuttered for a moment before she managed to get her breathing under control. "Hey Mongo," she said softly, her face splitting into an ecstatic smile.

Jason smiled back. "Hey Squirt." His words ran together a little, his voice made airy and a bit off-kilter by the massive influx of morphine. With obvious strain, he lifted his head slightly and looked down at himself before flopping back to the pillow with a grimace. "Fucked myself up pretty good, didn't I?"

"Well it's not like you could get any uglier," Tommy chimed in. Jason let out a soft chuckle at that which quickly turned into a cough. Kim finally seemed to realize that Tommy had wrapped himself around her and stepped away from him to stand next to Jason's head, still gripping his hand between both of hers.

Jason didn't seem to notice. "If I wasn't on all these glorious painkillers right now I would totally kick your ass."

"Get in line," Tommy replied. "Adam apparently has first dibs."

"The First Jason Bank of Ass-Kicking does not recognize dibs as legal tender," Jason slurred, holding up his other hand for a second before letting it fall back to the table. "Also ow." He turned back to Kim. "Now can I have my hand back or are you going to keep molesting it? Because I will not hesitate to press charges." As these words left his mouth the Red Ranger dissolved into a fit of delirious giggles that Kim and Tommy smiled at despite themselves.

Kim pressed Jason's hand to her face again. "Sorry, Jase. The last person I held onto like this got left for dead because a certain someone couldn't do his job."

Jason's brow furrowed slightly, his doped-up brain a little slow to comprehend what Kim had just said. Tommy, however, was at no such disadvantage. He scowled at Kim. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?"

She whirled on him. "What? You leaving two incapacitated civilians in the middle of a goddamn war zone? No, something tells me that _might_ be a little important."

Jason snorted. "Fan-fucking-tastic," he muttered under his breath. "I'm gonna have to play marriage counselor for you two again, aren't I?" They both turned and glared at him; he shrugged. "I'm just sayin', we should warn the newbies. These things never turn out well for the kids."

Kim leaned over and slapped Jason gently on the cheek. "Shut up, Mongo."

* * *

**Command Center Main Chamber  
****Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****Noon PDT**

Aisha rose shakily to her feet, most of her weight still leaning on the hand Rocky had inserted under her arm. The Main Chamber had gone totally silent when she arrived; she looked up into four pairs of eyes that stared at her expectantly, searching her face for the story of where she'd just come from.

Rocky reached up and gently laid his free hand on the side of her neck. She flinched in surprise and gasped a little, grabbing his wrist and peering wide-eyed into his face.

"Sha?" He spoke so softly she could barely hear him, even from only a few inches away. She felt the slightest movement of air, his breath brushing across the flesh of her cheek, and suddenly everything came flying back and she was falling again, plummeting from thousands of feet above the Earth to save a man she'd just met, watching him slip through her fingers as she was whisked away to safety and he was left behind to die. Her eyes welled up, pools of hot tears threatening to leap free and tumble down cheeks made raw by the fierce winds.

Rocky had started to break into an exuberant smile at her presence; at the sound of the first breath catching quietly in her throat, it vanished so fast it may as well have been ripped off his face. He leaned forward until their foreheads touched and nuzzled tenderly against her.

"Jesus Christ, Aisha, what happened out there?"

She wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell all of them, let the story of how she'd failed at saving even one person come bursting out of her mouth, let the dams break and stop trying to hold the tears back any longer.

She couldn't. Something inside her fought it back, killed the words as they crossed her tongue, pushed it all down inside as though hoping if she buried it deep enough it might all go away. Aisha squeezed her eyes shut, wrangled her breathing under control, and took a single, steady step backward, disentangling herself from Rocky.

"Not now," she said calmly, her voice even to the point of monotony. She opened her eyes, ran a hand over her face, sighed, and turned on her heel. "I just have to lie down for a minute."

As she started for the door to her private quarters, Rocky followed her, grabbing her shoulder and trying to pull her gently back. She fed into the momentum he gave her and whipped herself around, throwing his hand aside.

"Aisha…" he started. She quickly cut him off.

"God damn it, Rocky, I said _not now_!" She practically shouted before whipping back around and storming across the room. Rocky shot Adam a look that carried a distinct message of _What the hell was that?_ Adam could only shrug and pat Rocky reassuringly on the back as his friend jogged past him after Aisha, letting the door to the private quarters swing shut behind them.

Adam, Kat and Tanya once again found themselves alone in the Command Center, staring at each other in uncomfortable silence before Zordon finally spoke.

"Rangers," he said softly. They glanced up at him. "You should go to the Medical Bay. Your friends there need you."

"But Zordon, what about…" Adam jerked a thumb toward the door through which Rocky and Aisha had just gone.

"We must believe that together, Rocky and Aisha can get through this difficult situation. They will need each other, just as your friends need you."

Adam nodded, took Tanya's hand and led her through the doors into the main corridor; Kat hesitated, taking one last lingering look at the scene of devastation playing out on the Viewing Globe before following them out into the brightly lit hallway, wrapping her arms around herself as she went.

Rocky rounded a corner in the dimly lit hallway of bedrooms just in time to see Aisha disappearing into her room, slamming the heavy door closed behind her. He heard the resounding click of the latch sliding into place from the other side as he trotted up to the door and knocked on it softly.

"Sha, come on," he pleaded, leaning his forehead against the cold steel of the door. "Please, talk to me. I just want to help."

"What part of not now came out in fucking Swedish?" She shouted through the door. Rocky grunted in frustration and slammed his fist against the door one more time.

"God damn it –" Rocky started to scream but cut himself off and slumped against the door. He let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "You know what? You're right. I'm sorry," he said quietly. "Take as long as you want, I was just…_fuck_." He paused and shifted his weight uncomfortably, glancing back and forth down the hallway. Rocky cracked the knuckles of his right hand against his hip and started again. "Look, whenever you want to talk to someone, you know where to find me, OK? Anytime you want. I…" He stopped, thinking he heard something from behind the door. When the sound didn't come again, he went on. "You know I'd do anything for you, right? I just need you to be OK."

He patted the door gently with the palm of one hand and started to leave, but before he got far he turned and pressed his nose right up against the door, and spoke as though his lips were an inch from Aisha's ear.

"I love you."

No sound came from the door to indicate that she'd heard him. He patted the door one more time and started slowly back toward his room.

* * *

**Command Center Medical Bay  
****Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****12:45 PM PDT**

Adam, Kat and Tanya entered the Med Bay to find Tommy still standing next to Jason while Kim had taken up vigil beside Trini, both watching silently as the machines worked tirelessly on their various injuries. Tommy looked up at them as they entered and met them halfway into the room, resting his hands on his hips and eyeing the three of them anxiously.

"Where's Rocky?"

"Aisha's back," Adam supplied. "They had issues."

Tommy raised an eyebrow just as Jason spoke up from the bed, his words still slurring together slightly. "Hey guys! If Kim and Tommy get separated who would you rather live with?"

The three of them glanced from Jason to Tommy and back. Kat smiled. "Is he high on painkillers again?" Tommy bit back a laugh and nodded.

"You're just jealous," Jason called back, his words quickly fading into a bout of laughter.

"OK, I've had just about as much of that as I can take," Billy groaned, rising to a seated position and gently pushing some machinery away. The Blue Ranger swung his feet out over the edge of the table and eased himself onto the floor. Tommy and Adam moved toward him just in case but Billy appeared to be stable. He waved them off impatiently and reached out to give Kim a hug. "Don't worry, I'm fine. I just need to stay off my feet for a few more hours and at this point I'd rather just spend it in my own bed."

"I'm glad you're all right, Billy," Kim whispered as she stepped back. Billy smiled at her and was about to respond when Jason yelled at them again.

"Billy! Dude, when I get out of here, remind me to ask you how to fix my computer, the Internet connection's gone to shit."

"I'll do that, Jase," Billy replied with a laugh.

"Uh, guys?" Everybody turned to see Tanya, who still stood in the doorway, arms wrapped around her shoulders. "Am I the only one wondering what the hell happened to Zack?"

The room instantly went silent. Kim, Tommy, Billy, Adam and Kat shared a very significant look. "I can't really blame Jason since he's high off his ass on morphine but the rest of you have no excuse. So where the hell is he?"

"Well the other two beds are empty," Kim said with dawning realization, tracing her finger absently around the room. "So that means…"

The six Rangers' eyes settled as one on the Intensive Care bed in the far corner. An immediate feeling of unease began to seep into the room; everyone present felt an unmistakable dread start to creep over them. Tommy felt his palms start to sweat; Adam swallowed hard, feeling a lump forming in his throat. Kim, Kat and Tanya felt their heartbeats start to quicken, hands rising subconsciously to their mouths. Billy blinked rapidly several times, his mouth working soundlessly as he stumbled toward the enclosed unit like a drunk.

"Oh shit," he whispered. As he approached the bed, Billy felt his knees buckle. Tommy broke from his stupor in time to catch him and maneuver the two of them into position near the small window in one side of the enclosed bed.

When the two of them finally reached it, all the others saw was Tommy almost drop Billy, his face draining completely of color as he staggered back from the table. Billy slipped free from Tommy's grip and crumpled to the floor his hands and knees, dry heaving. The others rushed in to cluster around them, none of them noticing Tommy's feeble attempt to wave them all back. When they all finally beheld what Tommy and Billy had just seen, Kat turned and bolted from the room, both hands clasped over her mouth. The others just stood frozen in horrified shock, bile rising in their stomachs as the hideous sight inside the enclosure became visible.

Zack was barely recognizable as human. He appeared to have taken a large, heavy piece of debris directly to the face; most of the skin was grated off, and even though his eyes were closed, the others could see a small piece of one eye through a jagged hole in the left eyelid. His shirt appeared to have been seared to his chest, his entire upper body consumed by blackened, blistering burns. Zack's entire upper body looked like one massive chunk of burned and mangled flesh, most of the visible skin a disgusting red color instead of its usual deep brown.

But as bad as Zack's upper body was, below the waist was worse. His lower legs were completely gone, terminating in a perfectly straight diagonal that stretched from just below his left knee to just above his right. What was left were merely bloody stumps, the dark red liquid pooling copiously beneath them; the stumps were nearly perfect cross-sections, the layers of skin, muscle and bone each clearly visible like rings in a tree stump. A closer look revealed that the same line that the stumps of Zack's legs followed carried through his right hand as well – four of his fingers were gone, his hand nothing more than a shapeless lump of flesh with a thumb protruding from it. As the Rangers stood rooted to their spots, stunned at their friend's terrible state, they could see Zack's chest rise and fall erratically; after a moment a shudder went through him and a small trickle of blood appeared in the corner of his mouth. It was only then that they were able to tear their eyes away, each of them turning to face different parts of the room and speaking to the floor.

"Jesus Christ," Tanya gasped, her voice breaking.

"W-what the hell happened t-to him?" Kim stammered, leaning forward to rest her hands on her knees.

Billy had recovered enough to grab the readout screen next to the bed and examine it closely, his hands still shaking as he scrolled through the data. He finally glanced up at his friends and said, "He's suffered severe head trauma, brain damage, internal bleeding, widespread third degree burns, and it looks like his legs were severed but the cuts are almost surgical – this wasn't just a freak accident."

"It must've been one of those green energy field thingies I saw," Kim responded, gripping a nearby desk for support.

"Guys?" Jason's voice carried none of the deliriously upbeat quality it had only a few minutes before; now it was laced with worry, tinged with a hint of oncoming panic. Tommy and Adam looked at each other and made their way slowly toward the bed.

"Hey bro," Jason said as Tommy came into view. "I must've dozed off or something, what the hell's wrong with everybody?"

"Jase…" Tommy's voice trailed off and he looked at Adam, who nodded, stepped forward and placed a hand on Jason's chest. Jason's eyes never left Tommy's; the latter boy cleared his throat and continued. "It's Zack, he…he, uh…"

"What?" Jason frantically glanced between Adam and Tommy, the painkillers lending intensity to his panic. "What happened? What's everybody so freaked out about?"

"Jase." Adam spoke so softly his voice was barely audible. Jason locked eyes with him and pleaded silently for the merciful lie.

Adam couldn't bring himself to tell it. "It's bad, Jason." He looked up at Billy, who nodded and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's really bad. He…" Adam's voice broke, a sob threatening to break through; he drew in a hitched breath and let the word hang in the air.

"Let me up," Jason growled, all signs of the drug high completely gone. Adam and Tommy looked at each other and back at the young man in red who lay before them. Both shook their heads. "Let. Me. The _fuck_. _UP_." Jason demanded, trying to rise to a sitting position. Adam pushed down harder on his chest, keeping him down on the bed. Suddenly, Jason started thrashing wildly, his back arching, his arms tugging at the restricting machinery, fighting fiercely against Adam's weight in a frenzied battle to get off of the bed.

"Jason, come on, you have to stay down," Adam pleaded, pushing as hard as he could. Jason somehow managed to remove an IV from somewhere on his body and set off a piercing alarm from the surrounding equipment. "Tommy, god damn it, help me!"

"Tommy!" Tommy jerked his head around in time to catch the syringe Billy had tossed at him. Not even bothering to check the label on the hypodermic, Tommy yanked the cap off and pushed down on Jason's right leg.

"Sorry bro," he said gravely, and jabbed the needle into Jason's thigh. The effect was almost immediate: the strength of Jason's struggles quickly faded, and the Red Ranger collapsed back onto the bed, groaning softly, his head lolling to one side. Adam released the pressure on Jason's chest and reinserted the IV needle, panting with exertion and residual shock.

Just as Jason's eyes slid closed again, another alarm filled the Medical Bay, emanating directly from the Intensive Care bed. Kim took a staggering step backward toward the door, her face growing pale. Tanya shook her head desperately, tears already beginning to flow as her mouth began soundlessly forming the words, _no, no, no._ Adam ran a hand over his face, unable to move from his spot near Jason's table. Tommy felt his heart start racing; his mouth went dry and his knees suddenly felt weak.

As they all gradually overcame their shocked paralysis, everyone in the room eventually zeroed in on Billy, who grabbed the data screen and read over it slowly. Nobody in the room had ever heard this alarm before, but somehow, every single one of them knew exactly what it meant.

Billy confirmed their fears a moment later when he shoved the screen away and wiped his eyes with one hand; he raised his head and looked at his friends through bloodshot eyes that were welling up with tears and spoke in a voice both clinically emotionless and brimming with barely restrained despair. "It was too much," Billy said, his eyes looking everywhere but at the bed. "His brain was too badly damaged, his burns were infected, he lost way too much blood…" The Blue Ranger helplessly turned the screen toward his friends to show them what he'd just seen. "Zero brain activity. His heart's stopped beating." Billy shuddered and finally met his friends' eyes as he delivered the most devastating news any of them had ever gotten.

"He's gone."


	5. I'm Not OK

**Scorched Earth**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just the right to put them through hell for my own amusement. Saban owns everything Power Rangers related. Anything you don't recognize is mine. **

**Plot Summary: When a nameless evil invades Earth, killing everything in its path, the first eleven Power Rangers must face an enemy beyond anything they've ever encountered; and this time, they'll be pushed farther than some of them are willing to go. **

**Timeline: **_**Very **_**AU from the moment Zeo started; slightly AU from the moment Jason, Zack and Trini left. Takes place midway through Zeo, only Zeo didn't happen. Jason, Trini and Zack are still attending the Peace Conference in Geneva, Kim is still in Florida training for the Pan Globals, and Aisha is still in Africa. When they left, however, their powers weren't transferred – they still have them, and five new powers were created for their replacements. Also, that whole letter thing didn't happen, either. The current team, led by Tommy, is Billy, Rocky, Adam, Kat and Tanya.**

**Pairings: Jason/Trini, Tommy/Kim, Rocky/Aisha; others may come later.**

**A/N: This story assumes that the Rangers were juniors in high school when they got their original powers, meaning they are currently in their second year of college, putting their ages at approximately 20-21.**

**Warning: Rated M for graphic violence, language, crude humor and disturbing content, including major character death. (Nothing too explicit as far as sexual content, I'll keep that PG-13.) Essentially, this is what I imagine an R-rated Power Rangers movie would've looked like. If only, right?**

* * *

**Chapter 5: "I'm Not OK (I Promise)"**

"**Grief is not a disorder, a disease or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve."  
****- Earl Grollman**

"**We can endure much more than we think we can; all human experience testifies to that. All we need to do is learn not to be afraid of pain. Grit your teeth and let it hurt. Don't deny it, don't be overwhelmed by it. It will not last forever. One day, the pain will be gone and you will still be there."  
****- Harold Kushner**

**Command Center Medical Bay  
****Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****3:30 PM PDT**

The Med Bay had fallen into grim silence after the Intensive Treatment Unit had shut down and gone dark. People had slowly filed out, fighting to keep their tear-streaked faces from turning back for one more look at the small enclosure where Zack's body lay, until soon it was just Tommy who remained, sitting on the edge of the empty bed between Jason and Trini and swinging his legs despondently as he stared at the floor. Every so often he'd pick up the sound of a muffled sob or a hitched breath through the door; somehow he knew that was Kim, pacing the corridor outside the door, torn between not wanting to be near the body and not wanting to leave Jason and Trini alone.

He could relate. It was one thing when the others had been there to commiserate, to hug and cry and just wallow in the pain together, to share in that terrible, morbid rush that comes with giving oneself over to grief. There was relief in that, a sort of emotional analgesic that smoothed everything over, turned the pain into something blunt and slow and non-threatening. But once they'd gone, once he'd finally been left alone with his thoughts, everything had suddenly been thrust into sharp contrast; the pain and the stark reality of their situation had quickly distorted into a rough, jagged, white-hot cluster of spikes that embedded themselves in his chest and refused to let go. If Tommy concentrated, he thought he could feel them tearing a hole in him, opening a vacuum into which every positive thought or happy feeling would tumble and never escape. He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the hopeless tears starting to pool again. He felt like he was drowning in a flood, the overwhelming deluge of emotion pouring over him threatening to crush him under its weight. The grief was bad enough; the added side helping of guilt didn't do anybody any favors.

For the last hour and a half Tommy had been trying to convince himself that the reason he stayed behind after all the others had left was to keep a vigil over Zack's body and to be there to break the news as gently as possible when Jason and Trini woke up. But there was something in him, something deep down, that told him there was something else keeping him from leaving. Because of him, Jason hadn't gotten the full story of what was happening; worse, he hadn't had a chance to say goodbye. The last thing Jason had seen before he passed out was his best friend shooting him up with a sedative just to avoid telling him the truth. Tommy glanced up into his best friend's sleeping face and sighed, his mind quickly filling with the idea that he owed Jason better than that.

_Although on second thought, would he really want to be where I am right now?_

Tommy chuckled bitterly. _Well that may have actually been the single dumbest question I've ever asked myself._

Of _course_ Jason would want to be where Tommy was – taking hits for other people was like crack to the guy. If there was potential for someone to be hurt, especially someone he cared about, Jason would've jumped at the chance to step in. By trying to spare his friend from this, Tommy had basically taken Jason's propensity for protectiveness and bitch slapped him with it. The White Ranger blew a breath out of one corner of his mouth. _Awesome._

Tommy let his head droop forward, his chin resting against his chest as he closed his eyes and tried to imagine himself somewhere else, someplace where everything he cared about wasn't being destroyed all around him, someplace where he hadn't just lost one of the closest friends he'd ever had and utterly betrayed one of the noblest qualities of a man he thought of like a brother. Someplace where he didn't have to sit there uselessly listening to Kimberly sobbing just outside the closed Med Bay door.

There was a resounding clatter in front of him, and Tommy jerked upright, snapping his eyes open and practically leaping off the table. Jason had sat straight up, arms stretched out behind him to support his weight, glancing around the Medical Bay as though still a bit disoriented. Tommy let out the breath he realized he'd been holding and smiled nervously.

"Christ, dude. Guess I should've remembered your little thing for waking up as hard as you can."

Jason stared blankly at him and drew his legs in toward his body, bending his knees gingerly in order to ease his still-healing feet under him. Tommy watched as his best friend slowly maneuvered himself off the table and lowered his feet to the Med Bay floor. Almost immediately, Jason started to wobble slightly and Tommy darted around the table. He reached out to take hold of Jason's shoulders to steady him but found himself halted by Jason thrusting a hand, fingers splayed, right into Tommy's chest. Tommy looked down at the hand and back up into Jason's eyes, furrowing his brow in confusion.

"I think you need to leave," Jason said quietly, averting his gaze. Tommy felt a lump start to form in his throat. Jason spoke softly, but his voice was cold, emotionless - almost robotic. Tommy raised his hands in a gesture he hoped was placating and took a step back, letting his friend's outstretched hand hang in midair. Jason brought it down slowly to his side and turned away from Tommy, leaning on the table and gazing across the room at Trini's prone form on the opposite bed.

Tommy ran a hand over his face. "Jase, look, I'm –"

"Shut up." Jason refused to turn and look Tommy in the face, his quiet, dead voice seeming to echo off the walls of the oppressively silent Medical Bay. Tommy's mouth hung slightly open, working soundlessly around words that wouldn't come. Finally, the hum of the lights and the buzzing of the machines became too much; Tommy pursed his lips, exhaled sharply through his nose and grabbed Jason's shoulder before the other man could react, whipping him around to face him, and tried again.

"Jason –"

Jason cut him off again, throwing Tommy's hand off his shoulder and finally lifting his eyes to stare the White Ranger in the face. Tommy had to stop himself from leaning away from Jason's blazing glare, the intense resentment flaring up on the otherwise calm face. When he spoke again, Jason's voice was still calm, still soft almost to the point of being gentle, but now the undercurrent of barely restrained fury was impossible to miss.

"How long?"

Tommy stared at him. "How long since what?"

Jason suddenly lunged forward, grabbed a handful of Tommy's tattered white shirt and pulled their faces together. "Don't give me that bullshit, you stupid fuck. How long have I been out since you jabbed that needle into my fucking leg?" Jason's voice was almost a growl at this point, so low it was barely audible. Tommy could feel his hot breath on his face; Jason's upper lip had begun to curl into a vicious scowl, baring his upper teeth like a pissed off gorilla.

Tommy swallowed nervously and lowered his eyes. "Almost two hours."

Jason's eyes widened. He searched Tommy's face, almost begging him to be lying, but the other man reluctantly met his gaze and the ugly truth was impossible to deny. "You fucking asshole!" Jason glared even more intensely at Tommy and shoved him away, sending Tommy staggering several steps back. "Get the hell out of here, Tommy." Jason turned on his heel and strode across the room to Trini's bed, lovingly brushing a stray lock of hair off of her face.

Tommy tried desperately one more time. "Jason, please, I'm sorry –"

"You're _sorry_?" Jason whirled to face him, his right hand holding the edge of Trini's bed for support. He licked his lips and snorted derisively. "You're fucking _sorry_? Let me tell you something, Tommy. You don't _get_ to be sorry. You knew damn well that one of my best friends was _dying_ over there," he waved a hand toward the darkened Intensive Treatment enclosure, making a conspicuous effort not to look at it. "And instead of just telling me, instead of letting me make a decision for myself about how to handle it, instead of – god forbid – actually letting me say goodbye, you suddenly decided you had the right to make that decision for me. What, did you think I couldn't cope? Did you think I was gonna have some kind of breakdown and go all suicidal on you? For fuck's sake, Tommy, I thought you knew me."

Jason turned back to Trini. Tommy turned to leave and spoke over his shoulder as he headed for the door, trying to let off a bit of the steam this whole confrontation had built up. "I'm sorry, Jase. Really. I fucked up, I know. I'm sorry."

Was what he intended to say. Call it anger, call it an emotional outburst, call it the pain talking; whatever it was, instead of the heartfelt apology he'd meant to offer, Tommy looked at Jason over his shoulder and blurted, "You know, I think I liked you better when you were high off your ass on morphine. At least then you were fun."

Jason covered the length of the room faster than Tommy could comprehend and threw him up against the wall, pressing his uninjured left forearm into Tommy's throat. Tommy struggled for air and grabbed at his friend's arm but Jason would not be dissuaded.

"Listen to me you son of a bitch, I swear to god if you aren't out of this room in the next ten seconds I'll hit you so hard your fucking grandkids will feel it. Now _get out!_" Jason pulled his arm back and pushed Tommy toward the door. The two men turned their backs on each other, Jason returning to Trini's side while Tommy stumbled through the door, massaging his throat as he went.

Kim glanced up from where she sat curled against the wall across from the Med Bay at the sound of the door sliding shut. She wiped her eyes and cocked her head at Tommy.

"That went well," he muttered under his breath. His voice was a touch raspy; he cleared his throat a little and coughed once into his fist. Kim leaned her head back against the wall.

"Jason wake up again?"

"Yup. Ripped me a new one, too."

"Nothing you didn't deserve, from what I heard." Her voice sounded almost cheerful.

Tommy glared at her. "Fuck you."

"Not tonight you won't," Kim retorted, rising to her feet and moving past him to the door. Tommy stared after her for a long moment before rolling his eyes and storming down the hall toward his quarters.

"Son of a bitch."

* * *

**Medical Bay  
****3:50 PM PDT**

Kim entered the Med Bay moving like she was walking on shards of broken glass. Her calves quickly began to ache at the effort of rolling her weight smoothly from heel to toe as she carefully approached Jason, who had pulled a stool up to the far table and sat hunched over Trini, his back to the door. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he lifted his head and spoke without turning around.

"Exactly what part of 'get the fuck out' did I not make clear enough – oh." Jason turned his head slightly and saw Kim standing there, bloodshot eyes and trembling hands a testament to her emotional state. She sniffled a little and tried to smile.

"Probably the part where you didn't say that to me," she replied. Jason didn't seem to react, just motioned subtly with his head and turned back to Trini. Kim grabbed another stool and slid it up next to him. It was only when she sat down and turned to him that she realized she had no idea what she had planned to say to him. Instead of talking, she reached up and laid a hand gently on his shoulder, her eyes traveling to his right hand, which he'd interlaced with Trini's. After a long moment of silence, Kim opened her mouth again but once again found herself at a loss for words.

Jason helped with that. He turned his head slightly toward her and said, "You here to defend him?"

Kim slid her hand off of Jason's shoulder and gripped her knees. "Who, that asshole?" She gestured with her head toward the door. "Hell no. Frankly I thought you could've gone a little harder on him."

Jason's lip curled ever so slightly upward and Kim leaned into him, wrapping an arm around his neck. "There's the Jason I know," she whispered, leaning her head into the crook of his neck.

"He's gone, Kim." Jason's voice was choked and quavered slightly. His free hand rested on her thigh. He stared off into space over Trini's bed and Kim felt the tears starting to return just looking at him. "Five hours ago I was making dirty jokes with him and now he's…" Jason glanced over the top of Kim's head at the bed where Zack's body was held. She leaned back a little and peered into his face. His eyes were dry – Kim couldn't remember the last time she'd actually seen Jason Scott cry – but the pain was evident on his face. "I did everything I possibly could to get them out of there – shit, I dislocated my fucking shoulder catching Zack with one hand – and it wasn't good enough, _I_ wasn't good enough, and now –"

"Jason, stop it," Kim cut in, rubbing gentle circles on his still-tender right shoulder. Jason blew a frustrated breath out through his nose and let his head droop forward. "We're all taking this hard, believe me, but you can't keep going on like this, you're gonna kill yourself with guilt you don't deserve. You said yourself you did everything you could; just because you fall short of god mode one time doesn't make you responsible."

"So what does it make me?"

"Human," Kim answered, giving him a gentle shake. Jason finally turned and looked her square in the eye.

"Do you get the feeling we're doing something backwards here?"

"Hey, just because you've arbitrarily assigned yourself the role of my big brother doesn't mean you get a monopoly on good advice."

Both of them smiled at that; Kim actually chuckled a little, surprising herself with how quickly she was recovering. Jason's smile, however, faded almost as soon as it appeared, and he stared somberly down at Trini.

"She's hurt pretty bad, isn't she?"

Kim sighed. "Yeah, she is. Adam said she has four broken ribs, three broken fingers, a punctured lung and a concussion. She's hurt almost as badly as you were." Jason didn't turn to look at her, but Kim didn't miss the way he furrowed his brow in confusion. "The bottoms of your feet looked like someone had tried to flay you alive, Jason. Your shoulder was the size of a goddamn watermelon, every piece of your skin I could see was a different color; half your ribs were cracked and your…your head…" Kim leaned around Jason and examined the back of his head in shock. "Jesus Christ, Jason, how did you heal so fast?"

He cocked his head toward her again. "What?"

She stood up and peered at the back of his head. "The back of your head was cut so badly we could see the cracks in your skull, I remember Tommy saying it looked like a windshield that had been hit with a rock." Kim prodded the back of Jason's head as if trying to find the wound that was no longer there. "There's no way you should be recovered this much without being morphed."

Jason shrugged. "I've always healed fast," he mumbled, resting his elbow on the table and propping his head up with it. "Though right now it doesn't really mean a whole lot if I can't do anything for Trini."

"Just you being here is doing more than you think."

He raised an eyebrow. Kim smiled. "You're good for her; anybody with a brain can see it. You should hear the way she talks about you, Jase. I've never heard her so inspired by anyone. She told me once that she always feels stronger when you're around, that just knowing you're nearby is enough to make her feel better." Kim stopped and wrinkled her nose, making a face of mock disgust. "It's kinda nauseating, actually."

"This coming from the girl who wrote her wedding vows when she was nine."

"I seem to remember telling you I would kill you if you ever brought that up again."

Jason chuckled softly. Kim sat back down and rubbed his back.

"What happened out there, Jason?" Kim asked quietly. The two exchanged a look, and Jason adjusted his weight on the stool.

"They came completely out of nowhere," he began, and then he told her everything, from his interrupted phone call with his mother until he'd woken up in the Medical Bay to see Kim and Tommy standing over him. Kim nodded every so often but didn't ask questions. When he finished, she told her own story. After that, the two of them sat there in silence for several minutes, listening to the steady beeping of Trini's heart monitor. The gravity of what lay before them had slowly begun to sink in, the terror beyond the Command Center walls growing heavier and heavier on their minds. Finally, Kim stretched and turned to Jason.

"You should get some rest, Jase. If this situation is as bad as we all think it is, we're gonna need you. Trini's gonna need you. And if I'm being frank, you look like shit." He glared at her playfully. She was treading dangerous ground with that one – only a handful of people could talk to Jason like that and expect to eat solid food again. "Go take a shower, get some clean clothes on; maybe even take a nap if you feel like it. I'll stay here with Trini until she wakes up."

"Kim, I'm fine," Jason argued, squeezing Trini's hand. "I can hold off on all of that until I know she's OK."

"Don't bullshit me, Jason," Kim said. "I know you, and I know that 'I'm fine' is like your code for 'I feel like shit but I'll kick your ass for pointing it out to me.' You don't like to admit it but you're probably the most important piece of this team; in a lot of ways you're the rock that keeps us all steady." He smiled softly and blushed a little. "We're gonna need you at your best if we want to even stand a chance. Now get your ass out of here or I'm gonna bitch about me and Tommy's relationship problems until you want to kill yourself."

Jason gaped at her, mouth hanging open. "You wouldn't."

She held up a finger. "I do believe you were the one who offered to be our marriage counselor."

"Yeah, while I was high out of my mind on painkillers," he protested. "I'm no expert but something tells me that little detail robs that statement of a certain degree of legitimacy." Kim said nothing, just shrugged and smirked devilishly at him. He shook his head in disbelief. "You are a deeply disturbed human being, you know that?"

She grinned smugly. "I guess my dad was right about you being a bad influence."

"You hate your dad."

"I hate my Philosophy professor, too, but that doesn't mean I don't think he's right every once in a while."

Jason sighed and lowered his head. She wanted this one so badly, she could have it. He was in no condition to tolerate Kimberly Hart's patented brand of torment any longer than medically necessary. "All right, all right, shit. I know when I'm beat." He lifted Trini's hand to his mouth, kissed it, and set it tenderly down on her stomach. "When she wakes up –"

"You'll be the second to know."

He smiled and turned to leave. As he neared the door, Kim suddenly jumped up and ran to catch up to him.

"Jason, wait." He turned to face her. Kim slowed to a stop and hesitated.

"I, uh…" He nodded once and she swallowed hard before going on. "Look, I know I said I didn't come in here to defend Tommy, but…" she trailed off and Jason folded his arms skeptically over his chest. "Jase, you should've seen yourself. When you found out how bad Zack was hurt you went crazy, you were thrashing around on the bed like you were Hulking out or something. You ripped out one of your IVs, you were rubbing your wrists raw trying to push the equipment away…I swear to god you were this close to falling off the table. It could've killed you. I know Tommy may have made the wrong decision in retrospect but honestly, if it had been me, then, in the heat of that moment…" she looked him dead in the eye. "I probably would've done the same damn thing." She patted him on the shoulder and turned back into the room. "Just something to think about."

Jason closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. Still favoring his injured feet, the Red Ranger stepped gingerly into the hallway, staring back over his shoulder at Trini's still form until the door slid shut between them.

* * *

**Main Chamber  
****3:30 PM PDT**

Adam let his head flop back against the side of the console, staring up at the distant ceiling of the Main Chamber and trying to quell the rising feeling of hopelessness that had started to take root over the last couple of hours. The lights in the Main Chamber had dimmed after several minutes without any kind of movement; the soft beeping of the consoles and the hum of Zordon's energy tube were the only sounds. They'd turned off the Viewing Globe after they'd all stumbled, shell-shocked, out of the Medical Bay and wandered off in their own separate directions. Besides, despite all of their loud protests and – apparently – Rocky, Tommy and Kim attempting to secretly teleport out at least once each – Zordon had insisted that the attacks had quieted down and essentially forced them into staying put in the Command Center until they'd all recovered and rested. Teleportation had actually been shut off, so for the time being they were basically stuck in here. He figured it would do none of them any good to dwell on what had happened today.

Adam had considered following the others off to their private quarters but for some reason shutting himself into his room and rendering himself not only angry, scared, depressed and anxious but also alone just hadn't seemed like an appetizing proposition for some reason. Huh. Surprise, surprise.

Sighing, Adam glanced around, making out a couple of other silhouettes in the faint light. Kat, Tanya and Billy had decided to join him, none of them wanting to isolate themselves, and now they had sat in silence for the last forty five minutes, staring blankly into space or crying, in the case of Tanya, who sat across the room from Adam against the base of the Viewing Globe; Kat and Billy sat beside each other on another wall, beside Zordon's tube. From Adam's position, their faces were eerily lit with a pale blue light that made their features appear drawn and hollow, highlighting the despair that had slowly intensified the longer they'd sat.

_And we were afraid of being alone…why, again? _Adam chuckled angrily to himself at the cruelty of irony. _Right, because we're just _so _much happier out here._

The door to the main corridor slid open and loud footsteps came storming in, flipping all the lights on and causing groans of protest from the gathered Rangers in the Main Chamber. The footsteps stopped suddenly and Adam heard an angry snort.

"Nice to see you all are being so productive," Tommy's voice sneered, before the footsteps resumed again and faded into the personal quarters.

"Nice to see you're still an asshole!" Billy called after him, much to Adam's surprise. He glanced from Billy and Kat to Tanya, who was dabbing her eyes with a piece of the filthy shirt she still hadn't changed out of. As he watched, she dissolved into another round of sobs, her shoulders shaking as she wept.

"Tanya," he said softly. She looked up, her bloodshot eyes meeting his. "You wanna come sit with me?"

Tanya nodded slowly and trotted across the Main Chamber, where she curled into Adam's side as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. They sat that way for a while, silent, until the lights dimmed again. Once the insulating darkness was back in place, Tanya took a shaky breath and whispered in his ear.

"Do you think he felt any of it?"

He turned to look at her but his cheek bumped against her head and he ended up staring past her into the floor. "You mean Zack?" He felt her nod against his face and heard a sniffle. "God, I hope not."

Tanya blew out a quavering breath. "He was still alive when he teleported in, we don't know how quickly he lost consciousness or how long he took to…"

Adam actually recoiled a little bit; he couldn't help himself. "Jesus Christ, Tanya, why are you dwelling on this so much?"

"I just watched dozens of people die right in front of me Adam; I think I'm entitled to a little morbid musing."

"Bullshit," he said softly. Tanya's words said one thing, but the hitch in her breath and the strain in her voice told a very different story. She sputtered a little in protest but he silenced her quick. "There's something you're not telling me." He reached up and gently pushed her chin up so she faced him. "What happened to you guys out there?"

Tanya was quiet for several moments; Adam felt her heart pounding against his ribs, the tattered bits of fabric from her shirt draping over his knee. When she finally spoke, it was to the floor.

"That could've been me."

He frowned at her. "What?"

"You saw Zack, right?" He nodded. She squeezed her rapidly moistening eyes and went on. "Besides the, uh…obvious…did you notice anything strange?"

Adam chuckled in disbelief. "Tanya, his fucking legs were gone, his entire upper body was burnt to a crisp…exactly what was I supposed to have noticed?"

She pulled away a little and leaned back against the console. "His legs were severed with surgical precision, Adam, Billy even said so. From his left leg to his right hand everything below a certain point was gone along a perfectly straight line. How would you explain that?"

He stared at her. "I don't remember exactly what Billy said – to be honest, most of that hour is kind of a blur – but I do remember hearing Kim say something about a green energy field…thing." She nodded and opened her mouth, but he held up a finger. "Hold on a second. Don't take this the wrong way, but are you absolutely sure about all this? I mean, we weren't exactly climbing over each other to get a closer look at him. Hell, one quick glance and I was ready for a little brain bleach."

"I know what I saw, Adam," she replied calmly. "It was kind of hard to miss after what happened back at the Youth Center –"

"Speaking of which, you guys still haven't said a word to me about what happened after I left."

"This isn't gonna go anywhere if we keep talking over each other," she interjected, glaring at him. "Those wounds were _perfect. _They looked like cross-sections they would use at a medical school. Could a collapsing building just do that by accident?" She sat there as if waiting for his reply. When none came, she went on."Anyway, you remember that explosion that went off right before you got hurt?" He gave her a look that said he did. "Well, right after you left, we saw what was causing them. There was this…enormous orange fireball that just dropped right on top of us like a bomb from a plane. And it wasn't the only one. Between the time you left and the time the rest of us got back I counted at least five more. One of them was this weird silvery color and it…" she trailed off and glanced away for a moment, sighing. "I'll tell you later. Anyway, there was another one that was some shade of turquoise, kind of like your uniform color only a touch bluer. Tommy and I had come running out of the Youth Center and we had to tackle the others out of the way. Or, well, Tommy did. I, on the other hand, being the brilliant tactician that I am, ended up lying half on top of Kat in the middle of a bombed-out street while this thing came charging toward us. And you want to know the weirdest part?"

"It gets worse?"

"You have no idea."

"Why do I suddenly get the feeling that having a shard of glass the size of my hand stabbed into my back was the best thing to happen to me all day?"

"Probably because it was," Tanya said, wiping her eyes. "The weirdest part was that as inherently deadly as this thing looked, as powerful as the shockwave was, as devastating as all the other fireballs had been, this one just flew past cars and buildings and trees like they weren't even there. Somehow, though, some part of me knew the thing was lethal; it wasn't until Kim brought it up back in the Medical Bay that I finally put two and two together." She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them. "When Kat and I were lying in the street, that field came within an inch of my face. It literally dissolved so close to me that I could feel the residual heat it left behind." She reached up and tucked a strand of filthy hair behind her ear, her fingers tracing faint lines in the grime that streaked her face. Adam was quiet, just watching her, waiting for her to continue. "At the time, I didn't know what to make of it, I thought I just lucked out on escaping from some kind of really nasty radiation or something, but then I saw Zack and I heard what Kim said, and…" Tanya made an exasperated gesture with her hands and let them flop into her lap.

"And now you can't stop thinking about how close you came," Adam finished for her. She smiled and reached up to take the hand that he still had draped around her shoulders.

"I wish that's as far as it went." Her voice was so low it was barely audible, yet to Adam the words seemed to reverberate off the thick stone walls of the Main Chamber and pound into his ears. He started to adjust his weight to turn toward her but at the slightest indication of movement she dug her fingers into his hand in a vice grip. As he leaned back against the console she continued. "Every time I close my eyes I see it coming at me, this giant wall of green light, and I hold my breath and clench my fists and squeeze Kat against the ground behind me just like I did out there, only…" Tanya blinked her glistening eyes. "Only now it doesn't stop, now it just charges right over me like a herd of stampeding rhinos and I can feel my face start to crumble away, everything the light touches just starts cracking and falling off in chunks and dissolving into ash and dirt…and then the pain hits and I know for a fact that I'm going to die." She looked up at him, twin tears streaking down her cheeks. Adam ran his tongue over his lips and started and stopped a few times before he found words.

"My god, Tan," he croaked, squeezing her hand again. "I'm so sorry, I didn't…"

"How am I ever gonna be able to sleep again?" Tanya asked to the darkness. Planting a gentle, reassuring kiss on the top of Tanya's head, Adam let his head fall back against the console and went back to staring at the ceiling for a moment before the door to the main corridor opened again. This time, it was Jason that came through it, seeming far less worked up than Tommy was. His footsteps slowed to a halt just inside the door. After a moment, he spoke to no one in particular, all five people in the room shielding their eyes against the renewed intensity of the light.

"Shit, we have to work on dimming these down a little," the Red Ranger groaned. He was quiet for a long moment; from Adam's position behind the console, Jason's face wasn't visible, but he could imagine what the muscular, dark-haired young man was doing – glancing around the Main Chamber in confusion.

"What's going on? Why aren't we doing anything?"

Before any of the gathered Rangers could reply, Zordon's visage shimmered into view in his tube. "Jason," he said softly. "The attacks worldwide have quieted significantly over the past several hours. I have ordered all of you confined to the Command Center until you have recovered to battle-readiness."

"Zordon, what-"

"Red Ranger." Zordon's voice was suddenly, unnaturally harsh; Jason raised an eyebrow and had to stop himself from taking an involuntary step backward. Adam felt Tanya jump a little; the Asian boy peered up at Zordon, puzzled. Billy and Kat had moved around to the front of the tube, trying to get a read on Zordon's face as their mentor spoke. "Until I deem every single one of you to be at one hundred percent battle capacity, no Ranger leaves the Command Center. That is an order." With that, Zordon shimmered out again, retiring to another room in the Command Center where he could interface with the systems.

Jason blinked a few times and let out a surprised chuckle. "Um…did I just get grounded?"

"Could've been worse," Adam said, rising to his feet. "He could've whipped out the whole line about 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.'"

Jason cringed. "Ooh. Yeah, that one blows." He shifted his weight awkwardly on his injured feet. "Look guys, I'm gonna go take a shower and possibly pass out on my bed. Let me know if the rest of you get to 'battle-readiness' without me," he announced, drawing air quotes around Zordon's words. With that, Jason turned and headed toward the private quarters.

"Yeah, I think I'll come with," Billy said, moving unsteadily in Jason's direction. Kat followed, one arm extended toward Billy as though she were spotting him.

"I think I'll take a turn in the chop- I mean, the Medical Bay," Kat quickly amended at Billy's look. "I'm starting to get a headache."

"You should go too," Adam said, pulling Tanya to her feet. "Get that arm taken care of so you can get cleaned up. Hey." She glanced into his eyes. "It'll be OK. Trust me."

Tanya didn't reply, just nodded and followed Kat out the door. Adam looked around the now silent, deserted Main Chamber for a minute before grunting with frustration and jogging after Jason and Billy.

"Hey guys! Wait up!"

* * *

**Command Center  
****Rocky DeSantos' Private Quarters  
****3:30 PM PDT**

"Fuck!"

Rocky yanked his hand free of his communicator and flung it across the room, taking twisted satisfaction in the echoing clatter it made as it bounced off the floor and came to rest against the wall across from where he sat on the bed. Running a frustrated hand through his hair, he jumped to his feet and started pacing his bedroom, his bare feet alternating between the cold metal floor near the doorway and the soft, crimson carpeting that covered the back half of the room. His movements were jerky, awkward, the pain in his left side still limiting his range of motion; as hard as he tried, he found stomping around the way he wanted to be incredibly painful.

"This is a goddamn nightmare," he muttered to himself, slapping the edge of the desk as he walked by. Had Zordon completely lost his mind? The entire planet was under attack, people were dying at a terrifying rate, and their great, wise mentor's response was to shut off teleportation and keep the only people capable of ending the destruction stuck in their hidey-hole like caged animals. He'd been trying to find a way to teleport back to Angel Grove for the last forty-five minutes but he was no Billy. Whatever that old Eltarian bastard had done seemed to be working.

His eyes lifted to the wall above his door and Rocky stopped suddenly and jabbed a finger at the crucifix that still hung over his door.

"Don't you look at me like that," he growled. "Not like _you've_ been much help lately." Rocky let his finger drop and chuckled humorlessly.

"Great," he said, striding slowly to the door. "Awesome. I'm talking to statues now." Rocky lowered a shoulder and shoved the door open, jumping back in surprise at the startled yelp that erupted from the other side.

"Whoa!" He shouted, gripping the doorframe to keep from falling on his ass. "What the hell –"

Rocky stopped short at the sight of the chocolate-colored face that poked out from behind the door, a sheepish smile creeping across it. "Is this a good time? Because if you're still busy arguing with Jesus I could come back." Aisha pointed a finger toward the top edge of the doorframe and arched her eyebrows.

"Sha, hey," Rocky stammered. "Yeah, uh, come in." He stepped back and watched as Aisha slowly curled around the edge of the door and moved past him into the room. As she brushed by, he caught a whiff of something, a sort of faint citrus scent that sent an involuntary chill down his spine.

"I wanted to apologize for snapping at you earlier," she said with her back to him. "That wasn't fair." Aisha crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed, folding her hands nervously in her lap.

"Don't worry about it, I understand." Rocky swung the door closed and leaned back against it, shoving his hands into the pockets of his torn jeans. The two of them just looked at each other for a minute across the room, fidgeting nervously as each hunted for something to say. Finally, Rocky broke the silence.

"Want something to drink?" Aisha cocked her head at him and Rocky smirked and held up a finger. He pushed himself off the door, limped across the room and opened a cupboard under his desk to reveal a small refrigerator, paneled with faux wood grain.

"You know we have an entire kitchen full of food right down the hall, right?" She asked quietly. He threw her a look and she rolled her eyes and snorted. "Right. Stupid question. Of course you do. You spend so much time there we've considered naming the damn thing after you."

He grinned. "Really? I'm flattered." Rocky reached into the fridge and pulled out a tall bottle of clear liquid with a bright red label on it. "Drink?"

Aisha's eyes widened in surprise. "Is that Smirnoff?"

Rocky nodded once, emphatically. "Damn right it is."

Aisha chuckled in disbelief. "Zordon's told us a million times that we can't have alcohol in here."

"Yeah, well," Rocky said with a shrug, nudging the fridge door closed. "I've never really been as good at the whole 'perfect soldier' thing as Jason and Tommy are." He gestured with the bottle. "Now do you want a drink or not?"

She hesitated. "I don't know if that's such a good idea right now, Rocko."

He set the bottle down on the counter and sighed, suddenly somber. "Zack's dead, Sha. I think we're entitled to a little wiggle room." He glanced around a few times and grunted in frustration. "Only problem is, I don't have any glasses in here."

Aisha sat up a little straighter, her mind made up. "You know what? Screw the rules, I fell out of a fucking plane today. Just give me the bottle."

Rocky raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Really?"

"Don't make me take it from you."

Rocky spread his arms in a gesture of surrender and made his way to the bed, where he handed Aisha the bottle and sat down next to her. The purple-clad girl spun the cap off the bottle and raised it to her lips, taking a long swig before pulling away, the liquid sloshing back to the bottom.

"Whoa, whoa, holy shit," Rocky hissed, snatching the bottle away from her. "What the hell are you doing? Thirty seconds ago you were doing your damnedest to play the voice of reason and now you're takin' pulls straight out of the bottle? What, did you catch schizophrenia in Africa somewhere and never tell anyone?"

Aisha delicately wiped a bit of moisture from the corner of her mouth and leveled her gaze at him. "I don't know," she said sarcastically. "I guess I just suddenly realized that I was sitting in someone else's bedroom, on someone else's bed, in what could be the only place on the entire planet that hasn't had the crap blasted out of it by a bunch of bad _War of the Worlds_ imitators while one of my best friends is lying dead a few rooms away and billions of other people are running around dying horrible deaths outside and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. Not to mention the fact that – and I can't believe I have to say this twice – _I fell out of a fucking plane_ less than four hours ago and nearly died myself. If you've ever heard a better excuse to get wasted, please tell me, because I would _love_ to hear it."

"OK, slow down there, Sarah Connor," Rocky said quickly, pulling the bottle out of Aisha's reach and holding up a finger. "I'm pretty sure I asked if you wanted _a _drink, that's 'a' as in 'singular,' not 'a' as in 'chug vodka from the bottle until you start naming your braids and singing Alicia Keys into a spoon.'" She glared at him but he plowed ahead. "Yes, I've seen you drunk and I know exactly what you do, and I'm telling you, Sha, this is absolutely the wrong time for that. Believe me, I hate that Zordon doesn't seem to want us doing anything productive right now, and a part of me died with Zack, but we're not gonna be helping anybody if we're too shitfaced to hold our morphers properly. Besides," he turned and pointed above the door. "Jesus is watching."

Aisha grunted and waved a hand dismissively. "Like that's meant shit to you the last few years."

He shrugged. "Granted, but my argument still stands."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You're still a –" Rocky stood up and turned his back to her and Aisha finally noticed the grisly burns that covered the back of his neck. She gasped in shock and clapped a hand over her mouth.

"What?" He turned back to face her and saw her eyes still widening. He frowned, suddenly concerned. "Sha? You OK?"

She let out a small chuckle of surprise. "I could ask you the same question," she breathed, searching his face for some indication of pain. "Rocko, what happened to the back of your neck?"

"What? Nothing, I'm…" he reached back to feel the back of his neck and suddenly winced and nearly dropped the bottle.

"_Ow!_" He cried, yanking his hand away. "Son of a _bitch_. How bad is it?"

Aisha cleared her throat. "Well…"

"Don't give me any sugarcoating bullshit, Sha, just spit it out."

"The back of your neck looks like burnt hamburger," she said quickly, blurting it out before she lost her nerve. "You should be in the Med Bay right now, not here having a drink."

He shook his head. "You know, it's actually not that bad; I think I'll be OK if I can just lie down for a minute." He moved back toward the bed, but she stood up and gripped his shoulders, turning him around by force and steering him toward the door, taking the vodka from him and returning it to the fridge as they went by.

"Oh, no you don't. You, my friend, have officially been hanging around Jason too much. God, you Reds are all the same."

"Kind of a small sample group for that hypothesis, don't you think?" Rocky asked, affecting his best Billy impression. Aisha chuckled; as she turned to close the door to Rocky's room behind them, he turned back and regarded her again.

"Wait a minute. Did you really fall out of a plane?"

* * *

**Command Center  
****Jason Scott's Private Quarters  
****4:00 PM PDT**

It wasn't until the spray of water actually hit him that Jason realized he'd never needed a shower so badly in his life. He stood motionless for several minutes, letting the steaming hot water flow over him, massaging a lot of the tension out of his muscles and, more importantly, washing the grime and blood off his face. He hadn't even been able to look in the bathroom mirror as he went past it into the shower, having felt the splash of foreign blood on his face slowly caking dry over the last several hours; thankfully, his friends had all been able to avoid bringing it up.

And then there was the other thing. Alone with his thoughts and the sound of the running water, Jason's mind had inevitably settled on the stark reality of the last few hours, the inescapable truth he found himself still struggling to come to terms with.

_Zack is dead._

The words pounded against the inside of his skull like a frantic prisoner begging to be set free; images of his memories with the Black Ranger flashed indiscriminately, randomly, before his closed eyes, a veritable slide show of painful nostalgia that brought a lump to his throat. Jason had to fight to keep his breathing under control, allowing nothing more than a few hot, angry tears that were rendered invisible by the stream of water. His fists clenched and unclenched, fingernails digging into his palms; his gasping, choking breaths hitched painfully in his throat, and still the Red Ranger would not allow the grief to consume him completely.

Throwing a hand up against the white plastic wall of the shower, Jason concentrated as hard as he could on staying calm, turning the grief into something productive. It had worked after the death of his infant sister when he was thirteen; it had to work now, or they were all royally fucked.

Making matters even worse was what still awaited them beyond the Command Center's walls, the impossibly powerful enemy that had taken their entire planet by surprise, rendering a once prosperous oasis of life in the desert of space into little more than a charred cinder. It was then, as the water roared in his ears and pelted his bare skin and memories of his life with Zack played over and over again in his head like a never-ending slideshow of grief, that Jason Scott made a promise to himself, one he intended to sacrifice anything to keep. Whoever – whatever – these bastards were, they had robbed him of a best friend and damn near deprived him of a planet. He would not allow their onslaught to go unheeded. If Earth was going down, humanity was damn well not going quietly. He would see to that.

This wasn't just one of Rita and Zedd's plots to conquer their planet; this was all-out, full scale war. And it had just been made intensely personal. If he had anything to say about it, every last one of those alien fuckers would pay.

The thought made him feel considerably better. He would have to ask Billy or Adam about the untapped medicinal properties of blood oaths.

_Huh. Maybe the Vikings were on to something after all_, Jason thought, a wry half smile creeping across his face as he wrapped a fiery red towel around himself and wiped some of the steam off the bathroom mirror. He stood there for a moment and examined himself, tracing the paths of the scars from all those terrible battles that crisscrossed his upper torso and left faint pockmarks in the skin of his face where he'd been hit by tiny shards of shrapnel at the Peace Conference campus. Every line of wrinkled pink flesh that stood out from the rest like a subway track map reminded him of something else about Zack, some battle where he'd saved Jason's ass or had a good cool down session with him after something got fucked up; the time just after Tommy had joined them that Jason and Zack had sat down, just the two of them, and argued every possible pro, con and perspective of bringing the new guy onto their team. Even now, Jason smiled to himself as he remembered Zack playing devil's advocate. The guy had always seemed to take some kind of twisted satisfaction from it.

* * *

_"Like I've said about fifteen trillion times, dude, nothing he did was his choice. The spell's broken, we have the coin, he seems extremely remorseful, and most importantly, we need him," Jason had said, glancing sidelong at Zack. "Rita's only gotten more powerful since we started, we have to compensate. I'm not gonna sit around in here trying to play catchup while we have a perfectly good new asset right in front of our faces." The two of them sat with their backs against the large, triangular protrusion that extended from the Command Center's roof, looking out into the distance as the sun set over the mountainous desert. Zack snorted and shifted his weight, pulling one knee up toward his chest so his foot lay flat._

_ "Yeah, we need him all right," Zack replied. "Here we have the guy who was Rita's 'greatest warrior', her 'ultimate champion,' blah blah fuckity blah. We took him down; what else is she gonna do?"_

_ "That's big talk coming from the guy who called the Green Ranger Rita's trump card," Jason countered, gesturing with a finger. "'She played it. She won. Cue dramatic music, fade to black.' Any of this ringing a bell?"_

_ "I'm sorry; I missed the part where it suddenly became OK for you to use my Heroic Blue Screen of Death moment as a cover up for your chronic Big Brother complex."_

_ "You wanna run that one by me one more time?"_

_ Zack turned and glanced at Jason, who was peering intensely out at the sunset, the outline of the mountains drawing a sharp line of shadow across his face. "Why do you get all broody every time I bring that up?"_

_ Jason let his head fall back against the wall and chuckled bitterly. "Because you can't fucking _stop_ bringing it up, no matter how irrelevant it becomes; which, may I remind you, is more every day."_

_ There was a long pause before Jason spoke again. "Anyway, as I was saying, I broke the spell, it's over, she has no power over him anymore. He's a good guy if you just give him a chance; I don't see what the big problem is here."_

_ "And you became an expert in how Rita's spells work, what, last night?" Zack rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around his knees. "He's too much of a loose cannon, Jase. For all we know there's some residual power left over from the spell that Rita can tap into any time she wants." He poked Jason's left bicep with his index finger. "You want to do this so fucking badly, that's your call; I've spent too long following your dumb ass without dying to turn on you now. But the day he goes all _Manchurian Candidate_ on us you don't get to come crying to me."_

_ "That assumes that I would ever actually cry," Jason retorted with a smirk. _

_ "Oh, come on," Zack laughed, turning to look at Jason in a way that aligned his head perfectly with the sun, giving the appearance of a glowing halo around his head. "Even you have to have a soft spot. What is it, puppies? Pretty girls in trouble? The deadly combo of sports and daddy issues?"_

_ The two of them threw their heads back and laughed, letting the tension of the last two weeks just slide away like it wasn't even there. Jason stood and joined Zack at the edge of the roof, sliding his hands into his pockets as the two of them gazed out over the sharply contrasted moonscape that seemed to stretch on into infinity in all directions, the shadows cast by the rapidly setting sun forming great seas of black stretching away from the horizon._

_ "This really is a fantastic view," Jason noted quietly, lowering himself to a seated position and dangling his legs over the edge. "I can see now why Trini spends so much time up here." Zack sat down next to him and made eye contact._

_ "Jase," he practically whispered, curling his fingers around the edge of the roof. "As much as I would love to give you all thirty-one Baskin Robbins flavors of shit about your…" he made a vague gesture with his hands. "…your whole…_thing_…with Trini, whatever it is, I'm not gonna let you change the subject on me." Jason glanced up at him. "Tommy nearly killed all of us; Billy just barely got everything in the Command Center back online. Do you have any idea what it was like when you were missing and none of us knew what was going on?"_

_ "I can imagine."_

_ "I don't think you can." Zack leaned back and rested his weight on his elbows. "For a little while there, right up until Billy finally locked onto your signal, we started wondering if what we got back was even gonna look like you anymore."_

_ "It almost didn't," Jason interjected, turning to his friend with a raised eyebrow. "That was the day Billy and Alpha perfected their dramatic timing with the teleportation unit and damn near got me killed in the process."_

_ Zack looked at him like he was crazy. "You mean _Tommy_ damn near got you killed."_

_ "Why is it so hard for you to stop blaming him for things he had no control over?"_

_ "Why is it so easy for you to forgive him for all the shit he put us through, especially you?"_

_ Jason made a sweeping motion with one hand. "Nothing Tommy did under the influence of that spell was his fault. Period. The end. The spell is broken. It's over." He regarded Zack with a look of stubborn finality and his friend raised his hands before him, palms out._

_ "OK, man, OK. If you say so; I've never had any reason not to trust your judgment so far, why start now?"_

_ "Awesome. Now can we change the subject?"_

_ "Of course, O Fearless Leader, I-"_

_ "I swear to god if you call me that one more time I will push you off the roof, man. I am not even kidding."_

_ "Whatever," Zack said with a laugh. "You know you like it. Now as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, there has to be _something_ out there that even you would get choked up over. What about the end of _Field of Dreams_?"_

_ "Dunno," Jason answered with a shrug. "Never seen it."_

_ Zack just gaped at him openmouthed. "And you call yourself a man. We are gonna watch that damn movie if it kills us, and I bet you thirty bucks you cry like a baby."_

_ "Sweet. Easiest thirty bucks I'll ever make."_

* * *

Turns out he was right. It had taken several months, and Zack and Billy had warmed up to Tommy considerably by that point, but the four male Rangers finally had a chance to sit down and have a real "bro moment," watching _Field of Dreams _on Billy's 55-inch TV. When it was all over, Jason had turned to Zack, more than willing to let him see how choked up he was getting, only to see the Black and Blue Rangers practically sobbing. They were so distracted that Jason had the chance to clear his throat, steady his breathing, and dry his eyes before either of them even noticed him. He'd managed to catch Tommy's eye and give him a subtle shake of the head, which the Green Ranger still felt too much like an outsider to defy.

Jason shook his head at his reflection in the mirror, running a hand over his face. Finally, he turned on his heel and headed for the door, reaching up to remove his towel as he did so. The door slid open before him and Jason came within centimeters of plowing into the person who stood in the doorway.

"What the…!" Jason jerked back and yanked the towel back up. The figure in Jason's way was dressed in a blue T-shirt and black athletic shorts, and adjusted his glasses nervously on his nose as he stumbled back into Jason's bedroom. "Billy? The hell are you doing in here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Billy said, plopping down onto the chair against the far wall. Jason cocked his head at his friend.

"Uh…this is my bedroom," Jason said slowly, as though speaking to a mental patient.

"Yeah, and you've been in that bathroom for more than forty-five minutes," Billy noted, leaning back in the chair. "And since I've never known you to take a shower longer than five minutes in my entire life, I thought there might be something else going on." Jason blinked a few times and looked away, running a hand through his hair. "I'll take that as a yes." Billy stood and walked up behind Jason, laying a hand on his bare shoulder. "What were you doing in there?"

Jason looked up and glanced over his shoulder at Billy. "Just thinking about how I'll never be able to watch _Field of Dreams_ ever again."

Billy nodded solemnly and let his hand drop. "About…that," he stammered, crossing and uncrossing his arms as though he'd never used them before. Jason frowned at him. Billy blew out a nervous breath and continued. "I want to do an autopsy on the bod- on Zack," he said, his voice trembling slightly. "I think I could get some valuable intel from examining his wounds, we could discern the nature of our adversaries' weaponry, perhaps even use it to amend our own munitions to better combat them, and…"

"Billy, slow down," Jason said softly, holding out a hand in a gesture he hoped was calming. "You're telling me that you can figure out something about these assholes' weapons if you examine him?" Billy nodded.

"But I wanted to make sure everyone was OK with it first. I figured I'd start with you."

"Well, I, uh…" Jason stopped suddenly and looked down at himself. "I am wearing far too much nothing to be talking about this; let me grab some pants." He strode over to the dresser on the wall opposite Billy and started to let the towel drop before he realized that Billy was still there. "Uh, dude? You mind?"

"Jase, I'm the team doctor," Billy said, sitting down on the edge of Jason's bed. "I've seen far more of all of you people than I ever wanted to. Besides, no offense, but you're not really my type."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Jason said with a smirk, casually removing the towel and draping it over the mirror while he rummaged around for some clean clothes. "Your type runs more toward the tall, blonde and Australian doesn't it?"

Billy glanced up into the mirror, his face quickly reddening. "This is dangerous ground you're treading, Scott. Lest you forget, I'm one of maybe two people here who could kill you and not leave a shred of evidence. And you're kind of attached to the other one."

Jason arched his eyebrows and looked at Billy in the mirror. "Whoa, Billy. That one hit a little too close to home for ya?"

"In the vernacular: fuck off, Jason," Billy groaned, falling back onto the bed.

Jason actually laughed, something he hadn't thought he'd be able to do for a little while yet. "Dude, chill. I'm just trying to spare you and Kat from going through the whole back and forth runaround bullshit that Trini and I had to deal with. Next time you see her, just ask her to talk and go somewhere private and tell her how you feel. Trust me, I wish I'd done that a long time ago."

"Yeah but you and Trini have known each other since you were five. Kat's only been in Angel Grove a few months since Kim left for Florida and she's spent most of that time drooling over Tommy."

"You noticed that too, huh?" Jason shrugged into a red Under Armor T-shirt that fit to his toned upper body and pulled on a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a pair of tennis shoes.

"It was sort of impossible to miss, even to an oblivious idiot like me," Billy replied, pulling off his glasses and wiping them on his shirt. "Though it does help somewhat that Kat's apparently allergic to subtlety."

Jason chuckled. "I wouldn't put a whole lot of weight on how long you guys have known each other; Tanya seems to have warmed up to Adam pretty fast." Billy raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know these things?"

"I'm a leader, man; it's my job to know," Jason answered, taking a seat in the chair. "Anyway," he continued with a sigh. "About that other thing you wanted to ask me."

"I'd understand if you have a problem with it," Billy said quietly, staring at the floor. "Bad enough he didn't make it out, now I want to go and cut him up like the catch of the day…"

"Are you trying to talk me into or out of this?" Jason cut in. Billy shrugged and looked up at Jason sheepishly. "Right. Don't quit your day job."

"Jason, please. I need to know you're behind me on this; it's important that everyone's on board before I do anything I can't take back."

"Come on, Billy, you know me," Jason said, stretching out his legs and slumping down in the chair. "I've _always_ taken your side in this stuff; it's not me you have to worry about." Jason steepled his hands in front of his face and frowned over them. "It's Rocky and Aisha that you're most likely to have a problem with; I know Rock's not super into the religion thing anymore but they still might drag their heels. Maybe Tanya, too. Possibly Adam, but to a far lesser degree, since he's become kind of your assistant in the Med Bay."

Billy nodded. "OK. Thank you, Jase. Really. It's good to know you have my back."

"Always, bro," Jason said, walking past Billy and holding out a hand. Billy stood and slapped it, and Jason pulled him into a one-armed hug. "This is gonna be a hard one for all of us, man. You gotta stay sharp for me, all right? You're the rational one."

"Oh, don't worry," Billy replied, slapping Jason's shoulder as the two stepped apart. "This one's personal. I won't let you down."

"Never have." Jason nodded, and Billy had turned to leave when the door to Jason's room slid open to reveal a frantic, out-of-breath Kat, leaning against the doorframe to support herself.

"Jason!" She panted, staggering toward them. Billy rushed forward and caught her under the arm. Kat managed to raise her head and look Jason straight in the eye.

"It's Trini," the lithe Australian rasped, gripping Billy's shoulder. "She's awake."


	6. Restless Heart Syndrome

**Scorched Earth**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just the right to put them through hell for my own amusement. Saban owns everything Power Rangers related. Anything you don't recognize is mine. **

**Plot Summary: When a nameless evil invades Earth, killing everything in its path, the first eleven Power Rangers must face an enemy beyond anything they've ever encountered; and this time, they'll be pushed farther than some of them are willing to go. **

**Timeline: **_**Very **_**AU from the moment Zeo started; slightly AU from the moment Jason, Zack and Trini left. Takes place midway through Zeo, only Zeo didn't happen. Jason, Trini and Zack are still attending the Peace Conference in Geneva, Kim is still in Florida training for the Pan Globals, and Aisha is still in Africa. When they left, however, their powers weren't transferred – they still have them, and five new powers were created for their replacements. Also, that whole letter thing didn't happen, either. The current team, led by Tommy, is Billy, Rocky, Adam, Kat and Tanya.**

**Pairings: Jason/Trini, Tommy/Kim, Rocky/Aisha; others may come later.**

**A/N: This story assumes that the Rangers were juniors in high school when they got their original powers, meaning they are currently in their second year of college, putting their ages at approximately 20-21.**

**Warning: Rated M for graphic violence, language, crude humor and disturbing content, including major character death. (Nothing too explicit as far as sexual content, I'll keep that PG-13.) Essentially, this is what I imagine an R-rated Power Rangers movie would've looked like. If only, right?**

* * *

**Chapter 6: "Restless Heart Syndrome"**

"**Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."****  
****- C. S. Lewis**

**Command Center Training Room  
****Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****4:45 PM PDT**

The sounds of heavy breathing and the rhythmic smacking of fist against sand and canvas greeted Adam as he approached the door to the training room. As he drew closer, he noticed that the door had been deliberately propped open, a thin ray of light spilling out into the corridor; the sounds of pounding music floated out as well, driving guitars and a pulsing bass line interwoven with intense vocals that screamed and growled more often than sang. Frowning slightly in confusion, Adam curled the fingers of his left hand around the door and poked his head in.

Just as he'd thought, Tommy stood inside, still wearing the same torn white T-shirt he'd been wearing at the Youth Center what seemed like an eternity ago; the piece of silver fabric that Tanya had torn off her shirt was still wrapped around his head, rapidly growing darker as his wound continued to bleed. As Adam watched, the White Ranger viciously assaulted a punching bag, landing rapid-fire punches punctuated by the occasional leaping or spinning kick powerful enough to swing the heavy bag back and forth on its chain. The longer he stared into the room, the longer he began to realize what the music was that Tommy had playing. Adam let his hand drop from the door and moved around the corner, stepping fully into the room.

"I thought you hated August Burns Red." He practically had to shout just to hear himself over the music. Tommy jerked as if shoved and stared blankly at him for a moment; he recovered quickly, blinking a few times and wiping his forehead with the back of one hand.

"Pause," Tommy said loudly. The music cut off mid-word, the sound leaving the now-silent workout room ringing with leftover reverberations. Tommy unfastened one of his gloves and made eye contact with Adam. "I left my iPod in my gym bag back in the Youth Center locker room so I had to use one of the playlists Jase programmed into this thing when he came back to help us out on that mission a couple months ago."

"Yeah, he never did teach us how to do that," Adam replied, leaning against the wall and stroking his chin thoughtfully. Tommy dropped his glove on the ground and turned his attention to the other.

"You never considered asking Billy?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. Adam shrugged and made a gesture with his hands as though weighing something on a balance.

"Five-minute stereo system tutorial from Jason or a three-hour lecture on electronics, amplification, resistors, and sound waves from Billy. Hmmm." His hands flopped back against his legs. "Yeah, I can see the appeal."

Tommy glared at him. "Have you always been such a smartass?"

Adam smiled. "I try to be. Thanks for finally noticing."

This time Tommy didn't drop the glove on the ground. Instead, he pulled back his arm and flung it right into Adam's face. Adam leaned ever so slightly to the left and the glove sailed past him and landed in the hallway; he never broke eye contact with Tommy. The latter man groaned, dug a hand into his eyes and turned his back to the doorway, wandering over to a weight bench and starting to absentmindedly curl a pair of barbells. Adam put his hands in his pockets and moved slowly toward him, trying to act casual. Tommy seemed to change his mind and set the barbells aside, choosing instead to lay down on the bench and grab the bar. Adam took his chance and sidled up next to him.

"Need a spot?"

Tommy glanced up at him and sighed. "What I need is to be left the hell alone."

Adam reached over and leaned on the bar just as Tommy went to lift it. "I think what you need, Tommy, is a trip to the Med Bay to get that head wound looked at. Maybe while you're in there you can get your brain examined like we've all been telling you to all these years."

Tommy narrowed his eyes at Adam. "There something you want to say to me? Because I am really not in the mood for this bullshit right now."

"Really?" Adam brought his other arm up and leaned his entire body weight onto the bar, peering down into Tommy's face. "That's funny considering that little comment you dropped on us a few minutes ago."

Tommy sighed and released his hold on the bar, letting his head fall back onto the bench and staring past Adam into the stone ceiling. "Yeah, about that." He grunted in frustration and rolled his eyes. "That may have been uncalled for." Adam gave him a look that said "_ya think?"_ and Tommy waved him off with one hand before letting it fall back onto his chest. "OK, OK, fine. It _was_ uncalled for, I'm a prick, I'm the fucking scum of the Earth. Satisfied?"

"Hey, you said it, not me," Adam said with a smirk. He lifted his hands off the bar. "Though I was almost content to let you go with just Billy's comeback. That was kinda epic."

Tommy smiled a little himself and sat up, resting his arms on his thighs. "Why do you think I stormed out so fast? Little shit caught me completely off guard."

Adam chuckled and took a step back from the bench, casually folding his arms over his chest. "Seriously, though, is everything OK?" Tommy glanced up at him incredulously and Adam held up a hand. "I mean apart from the obvious. We saw that Jason was awake, I'm guessing he wasn't exactly ecstatic to see you."

"Oh no, he was thrilled to see me," Tommy replied. "I've got the bruises on my throat to prove it." He reached up and absentmindedly massaged his neck.

Adam's eyes widened. "He actually got physical?"

Tommy snorted. "Can you really blame him? 'Hey, your best friend since childhood is severely fucked up and probably dying as we speak but I don't respect you enough to bother with telling you so here's a shot of horse tranquilizer instead,'" Tommy snarled, punctuating his sentence by jabbing his fist against the side of his own leg. He looked up at Adam with a bitter half-smile. "If he hadn't still been wobbly on his feet and probably a little disoriented Jason would've beaten me to a pulp. And the worst part is that I'm becoming less and less convinced I wouldn't have deserved it."

Adam made an exaggerated thoughtful face for a few seconds before waving a dismissive hand at Tommy. "Meh. I know from a certain friend of mine who used to wear my color a lot that Jason's sort of the forgiving type." Tommy's expression softened ever so slightly and Adam went in for the kill. "Besides, this time you're not even trying to kill everyone. He's almost obligated just to keep from looking like a hypocrite."

Tommy's eyes darkened quickly. He didn't say anything, just glowered at Adam from the weight bench. The current Green Ranger blew a sharp breath out through his nose. "That was a joke."

Tommy shook his head slowly and got to his feet. "That was in bad taste even for you."

"Hey, it got the point across, didn't it? Now come on," Adam grabbed Tommy by the shoulder and steered him toward the door. "I wasn't kidding about having your brain examined. We don't need half our field leadership going into battle with a concussion."

Tommy threw up an arm as they reached the open door and leaned against the doorframe, regarding his friend under the harsh fluorescent bulb that shone down from above the doorway. "When did you suddenly become the responsible one?"

"I took lessons when you weren't looking. Amazing the kind of shit you can find on the Internet." Tommy raised a skeptical eyebrow as the two crossed the threshold into the hallway and Adam smirked again. "Seriously. I just Googled 'what to do when the people in charge start bickering like angry five-year-olds,' and…" he gestured vaguely with one hand and Tommy glared playfully at him. Adam winked. "There were a surprisingly large number of results from Fortune 500 companies, actually, so at least you two are in good company." Tommy snorted and laughed a little. As the two of them passed through the now empty Main Chamber, a thought seemed to occur to him, and Tommy became very serious again. He pulled away from Adam and stepped in front of him as they were about to exit into the corridor to the Med Bay, extending a hand to stop the other man from passing.

"Hold on a second."

Adam glanced down at Tommy's hand, then back up into his face. "Didn't we do this already?"

"Think of it as payback," Tommy retorted, lowering his arm. He paused a moment, examining Adam's face, before going on. "You sure are handling this well. Know something I don't?"

"You give me too much credit," Adam muttered after a long pause. "I'm just really good at faking it."

"Really."

"Somebody has to be, the way you and Jason have been acting the last couple hours."

Tommy chuckled humorlessly. "What's your secret?"

Adam shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I'm just good at not thinking about it. I try to avoid staring into the abyss; I get a little uncomfortable when it starts staring back."

Tommy blinked a couple times and cocked his head at Adam in amused surprise. "You know, out of everyone in our fucked-up little group, you're the only one I could never get a handle on. Less than five minutes ago you were joking about looking up weird shit on the Internet and now you're quoting Nietzsche? Do the people on your home planet miss you or do you write back every few months?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "Private encrypted emails twice a week. Now are we gonna get you checked out for a concussion or should I just give you one right now?"

"God, everyone just wants to hit me today," Tommy groaned, turning on his heel and pushing into the hallway. "Two years out of high school and I'm finally popular. Who'd've thought?"

"No idea." Adam came up behind Tommy and grabbed his left arm in a vice grip, practically dragging him to the Med Bay doors. "Must be your brilliant personality."

* * *

**Medical Bay  
****5:00 PM PDT**

It was only as the Med Bay doors were sliding open in front of him that Jason vaguely realized he'd never come to a dead stop from a full on sprint this quickly before without running into something. He had slammed himself to a stop in the Med Bay entrance, his shoes leaving jagged skids along the shiny polished stone of the hallway floor, at the sight of Trini slowly rising to a sitting position on the farthest bed from the door. She looked dazed, disoriented, groggy; her hair fell in clumped knots over her filthy face and shoulders, the tattered shreds of her pale yellow blouse dangling from her frame like leaves about to fall from a tree. A thin sheen of sweat shone from every surface of exposed skin.

It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

He could barely breathe, his relief was so intense. Jason felt his heart leap into his throat, a surge of adrenaline pumping through him as the strength in his knees began to give out. He took a small step forward to keep his balance, the muscles in his feet roaring in protest as he shifted his weight around as best he could. Seeing Trini like that had brought so much rushing back to him, thrown into harsh reality the fear he had yet to face about the situation that awaited them. Now, after what had happened to Zack and what they'd been through in Geneva…just the very sight of those beautiful almond eyes opening again, of his girl actually sitting up of her own power, was enough to render him – for the first time in a very long time – completely dumbstruck.

Jason stood frozen in the doorway long enough for Billy and a gasping Kat to catch up to him, flanking him on each side as they approached the door.

"Jason?" Billy said, gently nudging Jason's shoulder. Startled out of his reverie, the Red Ranger let out the breath he'd forgotten he was holding. "What…" Jason cut him off by reaching up and planting the palm of his left hand on Billy's cheek, swiveling his friend's head to view the scene in the room before them. "Oh."

Jason watched, awestruck, as Kim helped Trini gingerly swing her legs over the edge of the bed and lower herself to the floor, fingers curled around the edge of the table for support. His mouth worked silently around words his brain couldn't form yet, and Billy was about to give him a shove forward into the room when Trini wobbled ever so slightly on her feet. Billy's arm shot out to push Jason into the Med Bay, but by the time it would've made contact, Jason was no longer there. He closed the distance between himself and Trini with inhuman speed and threw his arms around her, embracing her tightly enough to lift her off the ground. She lifted her pounding head to gaze into his eyes; Jason realized that she looked the same way she did when she first woke up in the morning, her face wearing a mask of serenity, a graceful inner peace and contentment that defied their circumstances and boiled his blood.

"Hey," he whispered, a small smile beginning to form on his face.

"Good morning," she whispered back, her own smile fading at the sight of Jason's concerned face. Suddenly Trini's eyes widened, a small gasp escaped her lips and her face drained rapidly of color as everything came flooding back at once. "Oh god, Jason!" She buried her face in his shoulder and clung to fistfuls of his shirt, her breath coming in ragged, exhausted wheezes that sent shudders through her body. Jason held her tightly against him, everyone else in the room quickly becoming invisible as he cooed softly in her ear, trying to calm her down. After a moment, Trini gently extracted herself from his grip and sat down on the edge of the bed, gripping the edges of the table until her knuckles started turning white. Suddenly Jason felt a tug on the back of his shirt and spun around to find Kim and Tanya frantically trying to get his attention. Glancing at Trini over his shoulder, Jason allowed Tanya to lead him over to where Kim stood next to the bed closest to the door, where Kat had sat down and was having the lacerations on her legs stitched up. The blonde Australian craned her neck to look up at them, the three girls eyeing Jason anxiously.

"Guys, what's wrong?" Jason was rapidly becoming concerned, his friends' expressions making him nervous. Kim glanced over his shoulder, past Rocky and Aisha at the middle bed, at Trini, who was talking softly to Billy, her eyes glistening with tears. Jason followed her gaze only to have Tanya yank his head back around. "Ow!" He hissed at her, massaging his neck. Tanya shrugged apologetically and turned to Kim, hands on her hips. Jason looked to Kim as well; he should've known she'd be behind this. "Why all the secrecy? You three act like you're planning to blow up Parliament."

"Jason," Kim slugged him on the shoulder and glared at him. "This is serious." Kim exchanged nervous glances with Kat and Tanya and sighed. "Trini doesn't know."

"Doesn't know…oh fuck me," Jason muttered as it dawned on him. "You didn't tell her?"

"We thought you should do it," Tanya said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "We thought it would be better if it came from you." Jason had to fight back a sudden urge to break her wrist. He settled for glaring at her.

"Gee, thanks," he grumbled. He looked back at Trini and Billy talking and a smug, bitter smirk crossed his face. "And what makes you think Billy isn't telling her right now?"

Kim, Kat and Tanya whipped their heads around to observe Billy, who stood with an arm around Trini's shoulders but his back to their group. Tears had begun to run down Trini's face; he was certainly giving her some kind of bad news. Kat snorted. "Well. Shit. That could've been planned better."

"No shit," Kim muttered. She turned back to Jason. "Jase, please. As Trini's friend, as _your_ friend, I am begging you to go over there and break this to her before Billy gets all clinical. Please."

Jason sighed and dropped his head. "Fine." As he turned back toward Trini, he felt Kim and Tanya pat him reassuringly on the back. Tanya leaned in close as he walked past.

"It'll be OK," she whispered. Jason smiled grimly and squeezed her shoulder as he went by.

_It's nowhere near OK, Tan, _Jason thought as he approached Trini. _OK isn't even on the fucking map._

"Trini?" Jason spoke softly as he stepped into Trini and Billy's conversation. Billy glanced up at Jason and immediately stepped back, slapping Jason on the shoulder as he did so. Jason held Trini's questioning gaze for a long moment. "You OK?"

Trini wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, leaving streaks of moisture and grime across her face. She blinked a few times and took a deep breath. "I think so." Her eyes wandered up and down Jason's body, a hunger in them. "You clean up pretty good."

He chuckled. "It's just an extremely clever camouflage for my dirty mind." Jason tapped a finger against the side of his head. "And for the record, you wear that dirt _very_ well."

Trini raised an eyebrow. "Oh, joy. I'm the dirty girl you've always fantasized about."

"Hey, my dreams are my own business." The two of them laughed softly; Jason cupped Trini's cheek in his hand and gently caressed her earlobe with the tip of his little finger. She placed her own hand over his and nestled against him, inhaling the smell of the soap he'd used to shower. Suddenly, her brow furrowed and she looked past him around the room.

"Speaking of dirty minds, where the hell is Zack? I'm gonna have to make you kick his ass later for not being here when I woke up." Trini smiled a little and turned back to Jason…only to have the blood drain out of her face at the pained expression on his.

"Jason?" Trini's voice was barely audible, a tiny, squeaking sound that carried an edge of mounting fear. Jason tore his eyes away from her and stared down at the floor. "Jase, what happened?"

"It's Zack, Tri," Jason croaked. "He, uh…he…aw, fuck." Jason ran a hand over his face and leaned against the table so Trini wouldn't see how weak his knees were becoming or the sickly white pallor that came over him. He pulled her in closer to him, so that their faces were almost touching. "When the dorm building came down we got separated, Zordon teleported us out before I could go back to find him, but…" Jason trailed off and Trini felt her heart beginning to pound in her chest, heard the blood begin to rush behind her eardrums. A cold sweat broke out on the back of her neck; suddenly her torn clothes felt far too tight, the entire room started to tilt to one side as though someone had messed with the gravity. Neither of them noticed the door slide open or heard Tommy and Adam enter, completing their grim reunion. Tommy made a move toward Trini only to have Billy and Kim practically tackle him to the floor to keep him from interrupting. Jason nuzzled his forehead against Trini's shoulder and found some semblance of his voice again. "God, I did everything I could to get you guys out of there but you were hurt and my fucking shoulder was…and by the time they finally got us back here he…I don't know, he must've been hit by something, that green energy must've gotten to him…there was nothing we could do." Jason lifted his head and Trini finally saw the awful truth in his helpless expression.

"No," she mouthed, gripping Jason's face in both hands. "No, please god no," she moaned weakly, pleading with him, her head shaking slowly back and forth. Jason sighed and held one of her wrists in his hand.

"I'm so sorry," he said, every tear rolling down her face a punch in his gut. Trini lowered her head and started sobbing in earnest, rocking back and forth. Jason wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, letting her bury her face in his chest as her hands clung to him like a life preserver.

Rocky squeezed his eyes shut on the adjacent bed and grasped Aisha's hand; since he had to lie face down so the machine could work on his neck, he couldn't see what Jason and Trini were doing, but he was also unable to tune out the sound of Trini's crying, the muffled hiss of Jason desperately trying to whisper comforting words to her. Next to him, Kat sat up on her table and fought back tears in her own eyes; Billy put a hand on her shoulder and Kat laid her own on top of it, stroking it gently. Next to Billy, Kim, Tommy, Adam and Tanya, now with a fresh bandage around her arm, stood in a rough group near the door, lost in a despondent silence. For a very long time the only sounds were the buzzing of the fluorescent lights and the occasional muffled sob, the small family of Rangers taking a long moment to process the intense grief that had just begun to sink in.

Finally, Jason pushed back from the table, kissed Trini on top of the head, and walked slowly across the room to the small enclosure that still held Zack's body. He lay one hand flat on top of the machine and was silent for a long moment. Eventually, Jason let out a long sigh and turned back to his assembled teammates, his hand still lingering on the console. When he spoke, his voice was soft, quiet, but it echoed through the Medical Bay as though he were shouting. "Look," he began. "We're all hurting right now. That much is obvious. What's happening out there, what happened to us in here…" he turned back to stare at Zack's body for a moment before continuing. "I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But the important thing now is that we don't let this break us." Jason let his hand fall from the machine and stepped forward. "Billy told me those things out there knew _exactly_ where, when and how to hit us. They attacked our planet as though they'd been planning it for years, and more importantly, they knew where _we_ were." He made a sweeping gesture around the room and began to pace back and forth.

"As bad as it may sound, we got lucky. That could've been any one of us in there," Jason said, pointing at the machine. "It could've been all of us. But it wasn't. Losing Zack is hard for all of us; he was a friend, a teammate, a brother, and it's totally OK for us to be…shocked, and sad, and pissed, and that urge to tear one of those alien fuckers' heads off is nothing to be embarrassed about. Believe me, as many times as Zordon has told us about the dangers of revenge, I would like nothing more than to kill a few of those assholes myself right now. But we can't let that throw us off our game." Jason scanned the room, making eye contact with everyone but Rocky, who still lay face down on the middle bed. "We've all seen firsthand what these things can do. I think it's obvious that this goes far beyond anything Rita and Zedd have ever even tried to pull off. This isn't some ill-conceived attempt to split us up or break down our self-confidence or teach us some bullshit lesson about life using bad puns and half-assed B-movie monster makeup. This is full out, no holds barred, winner take all. This is _war_, boys and girls, and I can pretty much guarantee that it's not gonna get any easier from here on out. I don't like it any more than you do, but we can't let ourselves flinch, especially not now, not when the planet needs us more than ever." Jason's voice had gradually intensified during the last few minutes, but he took a deep breath and spoke again, softly, like before.

"If we ever want to see our families again, if we ever want our world to be the beautiful place we know it can be, if we want humanity to survive…" Jason trailed off for a moment. After a very tense few seconds of quiet, he went on. "If we ever want to be able to live normal lives again, we have to beat these things. This is what we were chosen for, this is what we've trained for. This is what we were born for. If we don't get these fuckers off our planet, nobody will." Jason paused to let his words sink in. "Now I know Zordon's not letting us leave right now…" Rocky grunted angrily at this, and several others fidgeted restlessly. "So we need to make the most of our time. Tommy, Rocky, Kat – get patched up. Billy, Trini – get some sleep, you two look about to collapse. The rest of you – get some rest, clean up a little, maybe get some training in. Kim, Trini, Sha and I still have to go get our power coins from Angel Grove and the minute we get the green light we're bringing them back here. After that, this shit is on. We're gonna show these bastards what they get when they attack our planet and hurt our friends." Jason glanced one more time at Zack's body. "We're gonna take their little invasion and shove it right up their collective ass, and when we're done with that…" he clenched his fists and took a long, slow breath. "We're gonna kill every motherfucking last one of them." Jason stopped and glanced around the room again; after a minute, he strode back over to Trini and gave her a powerful hug.

"That was great," she whispered in his ear. "The Conference did wonders for your public speaking skills."

He laughed softly. "I'm just glad it's over so I can get back to punching things." The two of them separated as the others began to file out.

"Your place or mine?" Trini asked softly. Jason didn't answer immediately; instead, he turned to Tommy, who was lowering himself onto the bed where Jason had been.

"You and me," he said pointing at his white-clad comrade. "Training room. One hour."

Tommy raised an eyebrow but nodded before letting his head fall back to the bed's surface. Jason turned and smiled at Trini. "I'll meet you back at my place in five. There's something I have to do."

Trini nodded and headed for the door, but let it open and close while she still stood in the room. Turning, she watched as Jason patted the Intensive Care machine a few times before taking something out of his pocket and setting it on top of it. Then, he turned to the counter on the adjacent wall, tore a sheet off a pad of paper, and quickly wrote something on it before he laid that on the bed, too. Trini wanted to let him have his privacy, but her curiosity was irresistible. She crept up behind him and crossed her arms around his neck from behind. Peering over his shoulder, she could see that he'd placed three ten dollar bills on top of the machine, along with a note that read simply, "Thanks for helping me find my soft spot." Trini kissed Jason gently on the cheek.

"He was lucky to have you as a friend. We all are." She leaned her head into the crook of his jaw. "I love you."

He reached up and gently cupped her cheek with his hand. "I love you back. Come on. I can't be in here anymore." Then, together, hands clasped, the two of them turned and walked silently out of the Med Bay, not daring to look back even after the door had slid shut behind them.

* * *

**Command Center  
****Aisha Campbell's Private Quarters  
****5:35 PM PDT**

For the second time that day, Rocky found himself pacing in the hallway outside Aisha's bedroom, staring at the closed door as if he expected it start talking. His footsteps echoed off the metallic floor, bouncing up and down the empty hallway as he fought the urge to run. After he was done in the Med Bay Rocky had split as fast as he could, not even looking at the small enclosed table as he fled to his room for a shower and a change of clothes. The official orders were to clean up, rest up and get a light workout in of some kind if possible; once the opportunity had arisen, Rocky had immediately begun ignoring those and made a beeline for Aisha's room.

Now, ironically enough, as much as he'd hurried to get here, he couldn't bring himself to just knock on the door.

_Oh, this is hilarious_, he thought, passing the door again. _I've handled magical foot soldiers, monsters hundreds of feet tall, Dr. Edgerton's chemistry tests…and here I am having a goddamn crisis of indecision over a fucking door._

As if beckoned, the door latch clicked. Rocky skidded to a halt and slid to one side, pressing his back against the wall and holding his breath. The door opened an inch or so but no more.

_Shit, she's leaving_, he thought, feeling his cheeks starting to tingle. _Guess it's now or never._ Rocky shoved himself off the wall, gripped the edge of the door, and flung it open.

Kat was about as surprised to see him standing there as he was to see her. She let out a high-pitched yelp of shock, jumping back so hard that the towel she'd wrapped around herself slipped almost all the way off; Rocky caught a fleeting glimpse of her small, firm nipples before the slender girl snatched the towel out of midair and yanked it back up.

"Kat?" Rocky said stupidly, one hand still resting on the door as though it were the only thing keeping him from falling flat on his face. His mind had gone completely blank; his heart pumping so fast he could feel it against the inside of his ribcage. The only thing he could think of to say was, "Isn't this Aisha's room?"

Kat didn't say a word, just groaned, rolled her eyes and stepped to one side, fixing Rocky with a glare as she gestured with her head into the room behind her. Rocky frowned and looked past Kat for the first time, feeling his cheeks grow hot.

Four pairs of eyes looked back at him from inside the room, every last one of them twinkling with amusement. Aisha and Billy sat next to each other on the edge of Aisha's purple-sheeted bed, facing the door. He sat straight up, hands folded in his lap; her posture was more relaxed, her weight propped up on her elbows. Across the room, Adam sat sprawled out on the couch that normally faced the TV on the far wall but had been flipped around towards the bed. Tanya lay half on top of him, her right leg protruding from the sofa, foot planted on the floor. As the blood rushed into Rocky's face, turning his cheeks an angry shade of crimson, all four of them smirked with barely-contained laughter. He folded his arms angrily.

"What the hell are you all doing in here?"

"Oh, you just missed it," Aisha replied with feigned disappointment. "We were just about to start a game of bedroom musical chairs. I think Kat was gonna try to bribe Tommy out of his with a little surprise nudity." The room exploded with laughter and the blonde Australian shoved Rocky aside with a muttered curse and stormed down the hall, the towel flapping behind her. Billy pushed himself off the bed and followed, still laughing softly as he called for her to wait.

Rocky finally stepped into the room and pulled the door closed behind him. "Do I even want to know?"

Adam chuckled again and shook his head. "Aisha's just giving you shit, dude. Kat really was just in here to take a shower. This is about the only room left with any hot water."

"Ah," Rocky said, breaking into a small smile despite himself. "Jason's been thinking hard lately."

"You'd think he would learn how to do that in a way that doesn't involve the rest of us freezing our asses off," Tanya grumbled with mock exasperation.

"Pfft. Right. I got a hundred bucks for anyone who can tell me the last time that boy did anything the easy way," Aisha said, glancing around the room. "Yeah. That's what I thought."

"Come on, Sha, cut the guy a little slack," Rocky said, moving to sit beside her on the bed. "With everything that's just happened he literally has the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. Tommy too. They want to do a little deep thinking and save our asses I'm all for it." _Especially now that Zordon's apparently adopted an appeasement policy._

"You keep using that word," Adam piped up. "I don't think it means what you think it means." He chuckled again and Tanya swatted him softly on the arm. "In all seriousness, though, Sha, I gotta agree, although personally I think I'm more than capable of saving my own ass."

"I know, I know," Aisha said, lowering herself back onto the bed with a groan. "This whole thing just seems so hopeless, you know?"

"We've made it out of bad situations before," Tanya offered. "In fact, I'd say we've kind of made a habit out of it."

Aisha fixed her in a level gaze. "And what that we've ever done before even comes close to this? You heard what Jason said in there, Tan. We all did. This is a whole new level of fucked up that we don't even know about. How many more of us are gonna end up like Zack before this thing plays out?"

"All of us if you keep thinking like that." The four of them turned as the door swung open and Billy stepped in, a still-damp but now fully-clothed Kat following behind him.

"Just for the record," she said sternly, pointing at everyone in the room in turn. "All of you suck. Billy, continue."

Billy's eyes swept the room. "I spoke to Jason an hour ago and he told me how much he needs all of us to be in this if we want to even stand a chance. How's your neck, Rocky?"

"Better," Rocky said, stepping toward him. One hand still absently rubbed the bandages that had been adhered to the back of his neck, but the pain had mostly subsided for now. Billy gently peeled one side of the bandage off and looked beneath it.

"Healing's coming along very well," he noted, pressing the adhesive back against Rocky's skin. "Does it still hurt?"

"Not for the last half an hour," Rocky replied. "Those machines in the Med Bay have never exactly skimped on the painkillers."

"No shit," Adam said. "We'd all be addicted to morphine by now if Jason didn't get so loopy every time he got too much."

"Speaking of Jason, where the hell did he go?" Kat spoke up. "I haven't seen him or Trini since they left the Med Bay. Kim or Tommy either, now that I think about it."

"Kat, honey," Tanya said very slowly, as though speaking to a toddler or mental patient. "I want you to think very hard about what you just said and who we're talking about here."

Rocky chuckled. "Wow, somebody actually beat me to the dirty thoughts for once." He paused. "On a totally unrelated note, did anyone else just go to a very interesting visual place?"

Aisha picked up a pillow off the bed and chucked it at him. "Have I said you were disgusting enough times today?"

"You know I think with all this chaos you may have been a little off your pace," Rocky said with a grin. "Maybe if you get right up in my face and say it then it'll start sinking in."

Aisha snorted. "Last time I did that you tried to stick your tongue down my throat. Forgive me for having reservations."

"You see now why I took the alcohol away from you before?" He winked.

She rolled her eyes. "Fuck off."

"OK," Adam cut in, holding up a hand. "I think this is the part where someone usually steps on the lit fuse before the dynamite collapses the mineshaft. Both of you, chill."

Aisha and Rocky looked away from each other, Rocky leaning his shoulders back against the steel wall. The awkward silence that followed was broken by Kat clearing her throat.

"Hey Aisha, something Jason said before has been bugging me. What did he mean you guys had to go back and get your coins from Angel Grove? Aren't your coins stored here somewhere?"

"I can answer that," Billy piped up. "Back when Jason, Zack and Trini left for the Peace Conference, Zordon decided to let them keep their powers and make new ones for you three -" he glanced from Rocky to Aisha to Adam – "instead of taking them away. The reasons were obvious: their positions at the Conference wouldn't be permanent so we figured they'd be back, and we were all so good at what we were doing by that point that nobody wanted to lose them forever; plus we wanted there to be a backup team somewhere in case we ever got in trouble and needed some outside help."

"Like when Rock, Sha and I had to save all of your asses from Zedd's brainwave thingy," Adam said. Billy nodded; Tanya and Kat shot him quizzical looks. "Long story."

"And I think we'd all agree that having a few reinforcements has paid off," Billy added. "That incident with Xergon a few months ago would've ended _very_ badly if Jase and Trini hadn't dropped by to lend an assist."

"Tell me about it," Kat said with a shudder. "Although that would only have ended about as badly as this has started."

"Sha, I think your cynicism is catching," Tanya grumbled.

Billy ignored her. "Anyway," he continued, "after that whole shitstorm, Zordon decided to make that the official policy for whenever the lineup changed. I guess he figured the more Power Rangers there were in the world the better. The only problem was what to do with the power coins of the people who left."

"Well, like I said before, why not just keep them here?" Kat asked, moving past Billy to take a seat on the arm of the couch. Tanya immediately lifted her feet and laid them in Kat's lap. "Seems obvious that this is where they'd be most secure."

"You'd think that, wouldn't you?" Rocky muttered. "Not much of what Zordon's doing is making sense lately."

"OK, since there are witnesses around right now I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that but you and I are gonna have words later," Billy said, shooting Rocky a glare. He ignored Rocky's exaggerated eye roll and continued. "And for the record, _Kat_," he said, pointedly looking past Rocky. "Zordon _did_ think of that. He decided that the time we would need a backup Ranger team the most would be in an emergency, like if…god forbid…the Command Center was ever compromised. If, in whatever nightmarish hellscape would produce those circumstances, the reserve power coins were stored here somewhere, there'd be nothing we could do to stop them from falling into enemy hands."

"Nightmarish hellscape…" Adam muttered. "Checked the Viewing Globe lately?"

"Um, Billy?" Aisha had raised her hand as though seeking a professor's attention. When the young genius' eyes flicked her way, she lowered her arm. "When I decided to stay in Africa, couldn't Zordon have just sent my coin with me? I've always kind of wondered why he didn't."

"Actually, Billy, I think I can get this one," Adam said. Billy let his mouth slowly close. "If only so Rocky can have a chance to calm down. My guess would be that Zordon thought sending your power coins off with you into an environment with too many new variables would increase the risk of your identities being revealed to an unacceptable degree. I mean, come on, our coins get stolen like once a month anyway, and that's just inside the city limits. Do you really think Zordon would be stupid enough to send them off into completely unfamiliar territory? The answer is no, by the way," he added quickly before Rocky could blurt out the "Yes" that Adam could practically see preparing to leap from his mouth. One crisis averted, Adam glanced at Billy, who just nodded curtly.

"So," Billy began again, "Zordon and I came up with the idea of having the people who left store their coins at their houses in Angel Grove. Yours," he gestured to Aisha, "is at Kim's place. He figured that would be somewhere that nobody would think of to look; at the very least, it would buy us time to figure out someone was after them and take steps."

"OK, OK, I'm convinced," Kat said.

"Good." Billy crossed his arms and turned very conspicuously to Rocky. "Now I believe you and I need to talk."

"What, suddenly I'm not allowed to disagree with Zordon on anything?" Rocky glared at Billy, gesturing emphatically toward the door.

"Well it certainly isn't quality evidence of intelligence," Billy shot back. "In case you haven't noticed, Zordon A) has been around for a few millennia longer than us; B) is an intergalactic _wizard_ and still the only entity we know of that Lord Zedd was ever afraid of; and C) is the reason any of us are Power Rangers to begin with. The guy seems to know what the hell he's doing, although in your case he may have been intoxicated when he did it."

"And in case _you_ haven't noticed, Zordon pretty much told the entire fucking world that it could go to hell so that we, the only people who stand even the slightest chance of making things right, could get a few boo-boos patched up. And then, even when more than half of us were ready to go, he decided it was smarter to keep us locked up in here against our will. So in the last few years he's gone from simple violation of child labor laws to kidnapping, reckless endangerment, and oh yeah, don't forget _allowing genocide_."

"Rocky!" Kat cut in before Billy could retort. "You don't honestly believe that any of us would've been able to do any good in the condition we were in, do you?" At Rocky's incredulous look, she scoffed in surprise and raised her eyebrows. "_Seriously?_ Come on. We were all reeling from Zack's death; most of us were still injured to within inches of our own. How many of us do you think would've even survived morphing at that point?"

"None," Billy muttered. Rocky glared at him again.

"Besides," Kat continued. "The moment we were all here the attacks subsided almost completely. If anything, we were obligated to pull out – if these things have some way of tracking us or know something about who we are, the best thing to do right now is to hide any traces of our energy signature. What you call allowing genocide I call buying humanity a little valuable time."

"Time for what?" Aisha asked, standing and moving to stand beside Rocky. "To die a little more slowly? To be afraid for a few more minutes before they all wind up looking just like Zack?" Aisha jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "Jason talked a big game in there before but that's all it is – talk – until we actually do something about it. And right now all Zordon is doing is keeping us from doing something. Now don't get me wrong," she added as Adam sat up from the couch to interject. "I don't blame Jason or Tommy for this. They're leaders – they're too busy dealing with the world as it is to think about how it should be. But you can't jump down Rocky's throat because he's the only one here who isn't deluded by some kind of fanatical Zordon hero worship. He's doing what all of us should be doing right now – questioning everything, because people like Tommy and Jason don't have the time or the luxury of being able to do it. We owe it to _them_ to point out when someone's fucked up. Even if that someone is Zordon."

Billy stared, shocked, into Aisha's face for a long moment before he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room; Kat, Adam and Tanya followed, letting the door swing shut behind them.

* * *

**Command Center  
****Jason Scott's Private Quarters  
****5:45 PM PDT**

"I bet they think we're having sex in here." Trini glanced sidelong at Jason and tossed him a wry half-smile. Jason grinned but didn't turn to face her; his eyes darted back and forth across the screen before them, his thumbs flying over the face of the controller in his hands.

"Only in the sense that we are absolutely skull-fucking this game to death," he said with a laugh, his eyes twinkling as he turned and made eye contact with her. "You feeling any better?"

"Much," Trini replied, executing a complicated sequence on a controller of her own. The game finally ended and she held the object out in front of her. "You know I never had any skill or interest in these things until we started driving Zords all the time." She shrugged, tossed the controller onto Jason's bed, and looked up at him again.

"Yeah, funny how things like that happen," he said absently, switching the console off and unplugging it from the TV. "Hope Tommy doesn't mind us borrowing his Xbox. He's pissed enough at me as it is."

"I think you're blowing that out of proportion," Trini said. "Yeah, you two had words in the Med Bay, but you were both really worked up by everything that was going on and you were still partially out of your mind on painkillers. Besides, neither of you has ever been the best with impulse control."

"Come on, Tri," Jason argued, plopping down next to her on the bed. Her hand found itself resting on his knee almost automatically. "I slammed him into the wall; I choked him until he almost passed out. Tommy's talent for holding grudges is legendary – I still don't think he's ever forgiven me for that time I accidentally kicked his front tooth out."

"I _knew_ that tooth was fake," Trini muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. But Jason, you and Tommy are so close there are times when it seems like you're the same person. If you two can't find a way to make things right then humanity really is screwed. Besides, did you see the look he gave you when we left? He's probably spent the last hour thinking about how to bury the hatchet."

Jason was quiet for a long moment. He'd had several of the same thoughts over the course of the last hour; it felt good to hear them echoed. He knew Tommy would want to take some time to work off some stress before they confronted each other again; that was the whole reason he'd left the training room free. Better his white-clad friend take out his pent-up aggression on an innocent bag of sand than Jason's own torso, especially with the prospect of what they were about to do still hanging over their heads.

He turned back to Trini. "What about Kim? Where did she go after we left?"

Trini frowned. "Good question. I just sort of assumed she'd gone with Tommy but now that you mention it I think he would've wanted to be alone."

He nodded. "You're right. And if Kim wasn't with Tommy, there are only a couple of places I can think of where she might have gone." He stood up and stretched, rolling his shoulders and popping his neck, grunting with satisfaction. "I gave Tommy an hour," he continued as he pulled his shoes back on. "Which means we have fifteen minutes to track Kim down and check on her. Care to join me?"

She rose and grabbed her own shoes. "What about everyone else?"

He smiled. "Easy. I took a long shower a little over an hour ago, and I think the order I gave in the Med Bay was to clean up, get some rest, and train a little, which means they probably did the first two and came down with a case of rapid-onset Fuck-It Syndrome. The only part of the whole compound that'll still have hot water for the next hour and a half is Aisha's room." He shrugged. "Fifty bucks says they're all in there. Except possibly Kim. Wanna shake on it?" He extended a hand.

She glanced bemusedly at his outstretched hand and then back up at his face. "You think I'm stupid? As you're so fond of constantly reminding everyone who'll listen, nobody knows this team like you do. Though apparently not well enough to know I don't take bets I don't think I can win."

Jason let his hand fall back to his side and chuckled. "Meh. First time for everything. Now, you coming or what?" She nodded and the two of them headed for the door. As he reached for the latch he felt her hand on his shoulder.

"Jase." She spoke very softly, her voice nearly a whisper and suddenly quavering. "Thanks for this. I needed something to take my mind off of things even for a minute before I…"

"Hey," he cut in gently, laying his hand on the small of her back. She flinched a little and he pulled back slightly, but only slightly. After a moment, he returned his hand to her back, the soft fabric of her shirt too thin to block the warmth that seemed to emanate from his flesh. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad I could do something to help make you feel better…god, Tri, when I woke up and I saw you on that bed…you were lying so still, I didn't…" he sighed. "Anyway, translated into coherent English that means I really want you to be OK. You mean a lot to me."

She smiled softly, leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. "Thank you. So do you." He pressed his forehead lightly against hers and reached his other hand up to cup the back of her neck.

"We're gonna get through this, Tri," he whispered firmly. She felt his breath on her cheeks. "We're all too damn good at what we do for these things to come into our backyard and beat us on our own turf. Not gonna happen."

Trini nodded and took a moment to breathe in the smell of him, a mixture of aftershave and light cologne with a faint hint of leather. She closed her eyes and brought her hands up to rest on his chest. He moved his to her shoulders and pulled her in close. They stood there like that for a long moment, just taking in each other's presence, until he said, "You know, it's gonna be really awkward if someone tries to get in here and hits us with the door."

She chuckled and stepped back, pulling the door open and moving out into the hallway. He followed, shutting the door behind him.

"Come on," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Kim told me she was really upset when she came back, so I was gonna check the Main Chamber first."

Trini nodded and grinned at him. "You know I love you, right?"

He beamed back. "I like to think I do." The two of them strode confidently down the hallway, feeling for the first time like they could handle this.

The feeling didn't last long.

A door suddenly swung open down the hall and Billy, Kat, Adam and Tanya came tumbling out of Aisha's bedroom, angry looks on several of their faces. Jason and Trini's smiles faded quickly as they approached the group; Billy strode angrily a few paces down the hallway and put a hand up against the wall. As Trini moved toward the others, who were milling about rather awkwardly in front of Aisha's door, Jason's gaze was fixed on Billy. The Blue Ranger lifted his glasses onto his forehead and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. He was breathing so hard he was practically growling. Jason frowned and stepped gently toward him, hands in his pockets in a forced show of nonchalance.

"You OK, man?" Billy glanced up with a glare. Jason arched his eyebrows expectantly.

Billy's glare softened; his eyes closed and he let out a long, frustrated sigh. "Yeah. Sorry. Rocky's just being an asshole in there. Sometimes he can be nearly as pigheaded as you are."

Jason chuckled. "What happened?"

Billy opened his mouth to speak, then seemed to think better of it and closed it again. "You know what, it was nothing," he said, holding up a hand palm out. "Besides, you have way more than enough on your plate right now; you don't need this, too."

"Neither do you," Kat piped up. "Billy, Rocky was questioning everything Zordon's ever done for us, every decision he ever made…hell, he was this close to actually _blaming_ him for what's happening out there right now. You have every right to be upset."

"He did _what_?" Trini demanded incredulously. Her eyes went wide.

Kat nodded. "Oh, yeah. Rocky's been throwing a tantrum ever since he tried to teleport out and couldn't. He says Zordon is keeping us locked in here for no reason and that by not letting us out he's just making things worse."

Trini shook her head. "That is such bullshit!" She paused long enough to glance briefly at the closed door. "Don't tell me you left him and Aisha alone in there."

"That's exactly what we did," Adam said, sliding down to sit on the floor, arms on his knees. Trini glared at him and he held out a hand defensively. "Look, if anyone can smack some sense into Rocky, it's Aisha. Trust me."

Tanya snorted. "I don't know what conversation you were listening to, Adam," she said, planting a hand on her hip. "But it sure sounded like Aisha was agreeing with him."

Adam smirked. "Oh, that's right. You're new."

* * *

**Command Center  
****Aisha Campbell's Private Quarters  
****5:45 PM PDT**

Rocky and Aisha didn't say a word to each other for a long moment. Finally Rocky turned and made eye contact with her.

"Thanks for agreeing with me," he said softly.

She glared at him and flopped back onto the bed. "I don't."

"What? Then what the fuck was all that about?"

She rolled her eyes. "I just wanted to get them all to leave so I could tell you how fucking stupid you're being to your face. And without the audience."

Rocky closed his eyes and let a long breath out through his nose. He leaned back against the wall and slid down to the floor, holding his face in his hands. "Shit," he said softly. "Maybe I am being stupid. I don't know, Sha, I just…god, I don't fucking _know_ anymore. Zack is dead and Zordon's acting crazy and everything's gone to hell and my entire family could be dead right now and now, to top it all off, two of my best friends probably hate me…god _damn it!_"

Aisha sighed and sat up, her face quickly softening. "They don't hate you, Rocko. They're just angry and scared and grieving and a little irrational. We all are right now." _Which is exactly why Zordon kept us in here, you idiot_, she thought, but bit the words back. She slid down next to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He looked up at her touch and let a small smile creep across his face.

"Thanks," he whispered. She smiled back and nodded. "So," he said, letting his head fall back against the wall, eyes staring up into the ceiling. "You think Jason and Trini really are having sex right now?"

She smacked him again; this time, however, she couldn't help but laugh a little herself.

* * *

**Command Center  
****Living Quarters – Main Corridor  
****5:50 PM PDT**

"You know this from experience?" Tanya raised a skeptical eyebrow at Adam. "How many times have Rocky and Aisha gone at it like that, anyway?"

Adam licked his lips and stared off down the hall. "Quite frankly? They're long overdue. They usually maintained a pattern of build and release but they haven't really exploded at each other for months now. The two of them are the fucking Yellowstone caldera of unresolved sexual tension."

"OK, great," Kat said with forced cheerfulness. "So they waited to erupt until we were right in the middle of a goddamn global apocalypse. I must say I applaud their planning."

Adam laughed bitterly. "You call this an eruption? Oh boy, you're in for a real fun time. Tell you what, next time you have a free minute with Kim ask her what happened on the way home from senior prom."

"Senior prom?" Billy's brow furrowed in confusion.

Adam shrugged. "Somehow word got around to Aisha that Rocky had spent a few very passionate moments in the girls' bathroom with some other girl. Feelings were hurt, there was screaming, clawing, emotional manipulation, the occasional threat of violence, both lethal and otherwise, cans of worms were opened and their contents flung about, accusations were made, the Earth shook, birds took flight for safer climes, law enforcement authorities were called and subsequently evaded, it was a whole thing. You know how it is."

Jason glanced from Adam to the door and back. "So why didn't any of us hear about this?"

"As a personal favor to Rocky and Aisha, respectively, Kim and I were sworn to silence. We were the only witnesses – Tommy had to be up early the next morning for a tournament and Billy spent the night in the Lab curing cancer or something." Adam ran a hand through his hair. "That whole arrangement seems to have worked out well."

Jason folded his arms and dropped his chin to his chest. "So I'm guessing among everything else we can expect these two to blow up at each other at the most inopportune time possible."

Adam said nothing; he just pointed a finger at Jason and let his hand drop to his knee.

"Spec-fucking-tacular," Jason muttered. He pushed himself off the wall and moved toward Trini. "Well as amusing and…revealing…as this whole little meeting has been, Trini and I were on our way to go find Kim."

"I think you should let me handle that one, Rex," Trini said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You've got maybe five minutes to meet Tommy in the gym. You go do that, I'll track down Kim."

Jason sighed. "Shit. OK, fine. Think of something masculine yet fractionally sensitive and tell her I said it. I gotta go." He turned and walked quietly down the corridor, hanging a left at the T-junction and disappearing around the corner.

Tanya glanced up at Trini, then down to Adam. "Earth shook? Authorities called? I don't know about the rest of you, but I could really use a good story right about now."

* * *

**Command Center  
****Main Chamber  
****5:58 PM PDT**

The Main Chamber was quiet when Trini, Billy, Tanya, Adam and Kat walked in and let the door slide shut behind them. The lights had gone out from too little movement; in the instant before the harsh fluorescent bulbs kicked back on the only illumination came from the twinkling control consoles and the soft blue glow from Zordon's tube. Alpha still darted silently back and forth, working controls at one console after another while periodically grabbing and scanning the ever-lengthening printout from the galactic radar. Zordon himself had reappeared in his tube but seemed lost in thought, gazing into the floor and mouthing what looked like a language that none of them could identify.

Kim sat against the back of one of the counters, staring up at the blank Viewing Globe, hugging her knees to her chest. Her cheeks were still streaked with grime, her hair falling over her shoulders in clumps. Her clothes were tattered and dirty; it was obvious to all of them that she still hadn't gone to clean up. She didn't look up at them or react in any way to the sound of their entrance; the five of them exchanged a worried look.

"Kim?" Trini called out softly. Receiving no response, she edged forward and moved carefully toward where Kim sat. Kat followed, straining her muscles to stay quiet, approaching Kim almost like she was a caged animal. Trini reached her first and knelt beside her, laying a tentative hand on her shoulder as if afraid of being bitten.

"Kim, honey?" Trini's voice was so soft it was almost a whisper. Kat made her way around to Kim's other side and crouched before her, making anxious eye contact with Trini. Kim jerked at the sound of Trini's voice, as though she'd shouted at her. She looked around wildly for a moment like she didn't know where she was, her breath coming in erratic wheezes that made it sound like she was choking. The episode only lasted a moment – Kim quickly coughed a few times and calmed down – but it was long enough for Kat and Trini to wordlessly confirm with each other that their friend was not in a great place right now.

Catching her breath, Kim cracked a small, breathless smile and looked up at Trini. "Hey, Tri," she said softly, trying to hide the quiver that threatened to show itself in her voice.

"You OK?" Trini asked, lowering herself to a seated position. "You didn't look so good just now."

Kim scoffed and leveraged her palms on the floor. "Come on, Tri, I'm fine," she said, much more firmly now, as she pushed herself up to her feet and spread her arms as if the simple act of standing proved her point. When Trini and Kat rose to eye level with her and peered skeptically at her, she let her arms flop to her sides and sighed. "It took a while for the adrenalin to wear off and everything hit me a little harder than I was expecting, but I'm fine. Really."

"You don't look it," Kat remarked, and for the first time, Kim frowned and looked down at herself.

Her eyes widened a little; she smiled sheepishly and whistled. "Damn, you're not kidding. OK, I'm gonna go wash this shit off and put on some clean clothes. I'll meet you guys back here in ten."

"No rush," Tanya said. "Jason and Tommy still have their…issues to work out, and we left Rocky and Aisha poised on the brink of explosion. Speaking of which, sometime before we all forget you need to tell us what happened with the two of them at senior prom." Kim shot Adam a death glare and he laughed nervously.

"Aw, come on, Kim, how long did you really think you could go without needing to tell someone?"

Kim shrugged and turned to leave. "Oh, wait," Trini said suddenly. Kim stopped and regarded her friend, confused. "The whole shower thing may pose a bit of a problem." Kim frowned and Trini smirked. "Let's just say this whole situation…really got Jason _thinking_."

Kim rolled her eyes. "God damn it," she grumbled. "One day I am going to sit that boy down and have a very stern talk with him about water conservation." She sighed. "The water heater's in his room, right?"

Trini giggled. "Sorry, I think he locked his door when we – er, when _he_ left a few minutes ago." Her face flushed the faintest shade of pink but Kat and Kim's faces lit up with grins. Trini rolled her eyes and suddenly became very serious. "Wait. Oh dear god. You know what that means, don't you?"

Kim shrugged. "Sure. I'll just go wait in the hallway until Hurricane Aisha blows over and use her shower."

With that, Kim turned on her heel and strode out of the Main Chamber. The others watched her go, then turned to look at one another.

"Think she'll be all right?" Adam asked.

"Hard to say," Billy said, his eyes still fixed on the empty doorway. "She said she left two people behind and she blames Tommy for not saving them. Things like that are difficult to let go of."

Trini sighed, folding her arms over her chest. Billy was right. Kim was still in a very fragile emotional state, despite what she said or how she acted. If she and Tommy didn't get past this problem soon, there was trouble brewing.

"Great," she muttered under her breath. "Fucking apocalypse happens and we choose now to start falling apart at the seams."

* * *

**Command Center  
****Training Room  
****6:00 PM PDT**

Tommy wasn't used to it being so damn quiet in here.

Normally, the training room was an almost constant source of raucous activity, the loud workout music or the exuberant shouts of exhilarated sparring partners echoing down the hallway and providing background noise for innumerable strategy sessions or bouts of insomnia. It seemed one could never walk into the training room and not find somebody else already here, putting some kind of workout or practice routine together; hell, usually the only way you could get this place to yourself was to wait out whoever else was in here and get them to leave before you did. Now, though, the place was a goddamn ghost town. The spot where Tommy now lay on the floor, hands laced behind his head, staring into the harsh fluorescent lights, was the very place where he and Jason had taught Billy his first kata, where Kim had perfected the floor routine that had gotten her onto the national team, where Kat had first demonstrated her scholarship-winning ballet performance.

Now, any trace of that activity seemed to have been erased from existence. The massive stereo system sat silent in the corner, the weights lay ignored and forgotten on their racks, and for the first time Tommy could remember, the punching bag wasn't still swinging from the last pounding it had taken.

Groaning, the White Ranger unfolded his hands from behind his head and dug his knuckles into his eyes. The mat he lay on was dark, deep red, the color of blood; he felt the fabric sticking to the sweat on the back of his neck. Tommy planted his palms against the floor and slowly rolled over, feeling his skin peel free of the mat, and leveraged himself up to his knees. He rested his hands on his thighs and took several slow, deep breaths, trying to quell the raging tempest of thoughts and emotions that whirled around inside his head.

The sound of the door swinging open behind him startled him badly enough that he was on his feet with his fists extended before he even registered that anything had happened. Jason took a cautious step back and held out a hand, the fingers of the other still curled around the edge of the door.

"Hey," he said softly, crossing the threshold in slow, smooth movements and letting the door gently swing shut. Tommy had to force himself to relax, uncurling his fists and letting out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Jason didn't move from his place in the doorway. "Can I come in or are you gonna go all _Game of Death_ on me?"

Tommy let out what felt like a chuckle but was really just a harsh exhale through his nose. "Yeah, sure." He gestured to a weight bench with his head and lowered himself back to a seated position on the mat.

The tiniest hint of a smile flitted across Jason's face. "Thanks." He crossed the room carefully – still giving Tommy a wide berth as though he were radioactive – and sat down on the edge of the bench. The Red Ranger rested his elbows on his knees, wrapped his left hand around his right fist, and propped his chin on his hands. "You OK?"

Tommy ran a hand over his face and snorted. "If by _OK_ you mean 'teetering on the edge of a self-destructive rage spiral so deep that by the time I reach the bottom I'll only be able to communicate in quotes from nihilistic philosophers and Hawthorne Heights lyrics,' then yeah, I'm fucking perfect. You?"

Jason raised an eyebrow. "Please tell me you planned that."

"My bathroom mirror has been the recipient of some very compelling preemptive hate rants lately, yes," Tommy said with a small smile.

Jason nodded, grunting sympathetically. "Been there. Really, though, how are you holding up?"

Tommy didn't answer right away. "You still hate me?"

Jason shrugged. "You still an unhinged asshole on a messianic power trip?"

"What?"

"Sorry, college does things to people. Basically translates to 'are you still a massive prick?'"

"Well," Tommy seemed to consider the question for a moment. Suddenly his eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry, you said 'are.' I thought you said '_have_,' in which case I would've been obligated to say yes."

"So I come to extend an olive branch and you make dick jokes. I wanna hear someone lie shamelessly about the size of his cock I'll go watch Rocky play _Madden_." Jason's tone was deadly, but the gleam in his eye betrayed his amusement.

"OK, OK, fine," Tommy said, holding up a hand. "No, I'm not a massive prick anymore. In fact I feel really bad about the whole thing. I have since the moment it happened, actually."

Jason's expression softened. "It's OK, bro, really. I was angry and freaked and still a little high on the drugs and I took all of that out on you. How's the, uh…" He gestured to his neck. Tommy tilted his head back so Jason could see the bruise on his throat. Jason winced at the sight. "Holy shit, bro. I'm so sorry."

Tommy waved him off. "I probably gave you way worse back when I was still, uh…"

"A massive prick?"

Tommy smirked. "In the sense that that's the understatement of the millennium, yes. Consider us even."

Jason sighed and dropped his gaze to the floor. "You know I don't blame you for any of that stuff."

"As you insist on constantly reminding me," Tommy replied. He decided to change the subject. "So. How we doing?"

Jason held a hand out palm down and wiggled it up and down.

"That bad, huh?"

Jason chuckled. "So far everyone seems to be holding it together. Zordon said the attacks all tapered off significantly as soon as we were all hidden here, but the bad news is that he's shut teleportation down and not everyone is satisfied with that." At Tommy's inquisitive look, Jason nodded. "Rocky for sure, and possibly Aisha, depending on whether her support of him was genuine or not." Tommy opened his mouth to ask a question but Jason cut him off. "Long story, lots of gory details, I wasn't there to see it. Don't ask. Anyway, I don't really know how Kim feels about it, haven't really talked to her since the Med Bay…" Jason's voice trailed off as Tommy's face drained of color. "What?"

Tommy didn't answer right away. "Kim. She still pissed at me?"

Jason sighed. "I don't know, man. But if I know you two, and I think I do, she'll come around sooner or later. If you guys can't make things right then the world really is screwed."

Tommy let out a small chuckle. "I hope you're right, man. I can't stand the thought of her hating me." He turned and gazed past Jason into space. "You should've seen the way she looked at me when she got here, Jase. It was like…like she didn't even know me anymore, like she was looking at an entirely different person. For a second there, I felt like I was…" his voice trailed off and he took a deep, shuddering breath. "I felt like I was evil all over again, and I was looking at her through the Green Ranger's visor and I could see in her eyes all of the disgust and hatred and contempt she felt for me glowing like her eyes were on fire. God, I thought I had forgotten the way I'd looked at you guys back then, but right there in that moment, I was back there again, I was…" he glanced up at Jason, and the red-clad young man could see the terror in his friend's eyes. "I was the bad guy again."

"Tom, I want you to listen, and listen good." Jason sat down beside Tommy and clapped him on the shoulder. "And I'm only gonna say this once because frankly it got old a long time ago. You are _not_ that person anymore. The guy that I know would never hurt anyone. Ever. You're a good man, Tommy, and Kim is crazy about you. Shit, that one time after you lost the green powers you were gone like two weeks and she actually got physically sick. You're gonna be OK, all right? Just give her some space for a while." Tommy nodded and Jason hopped back up onto the weight bench.

"Anyway, we still need to get Trini, Aisha, Kim and my coins from AG," Jason began again. "Hopefully when we get back Zordon'll finally decide to let us leave."

"And what happens when we do?" Tommy asked. Jason blinked a few times and frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Tommy shifted his weight and turned to make eye contact with his friend. "You said the attacks mellowed out once we got the hell out of Dodge. What if as soon as we show ourselves again they pick up on it and come charging in again?"

Jason thought for a moment. "I don't see any other choice. We'll just have to be fast. Maybe if we get in quickly enough and then make like Earnhardt back here they won't even notice we were there."

"Hate to play Devil's Advocate here, bro, but they found us out of the entire population of Earth within a few minutes. Their sensors seem to be fairly well tuned."

"Yeah, but we don't know how long they waited nearby before attacking," Jason pointed out. "Besides, I'm betting the reason they stopped this time is because they think we're dead. If we disappear again, maybe they'll just think they got us again and we can go all _You Only Live Twice_ on their asses."

"You can spit out all the Bond references you want, Jase, they won't make you right," Tommy shot back with a laugh. "But I see your point. Ten Rangers are always better than six."

"All right, then," Jason said. "Now that that's out of the way, we should figure out how to split up. I don't want anybody going out there alone."

"Strong in the Force, you are," Tommy muttered, furrowing his brow thoughtfully. "Well, for starters, Kim and Aisha's are in the same place, so they can go together. Kim probably needs someone who isn't me to vent to right now, anyway."

Jason nodded. "Yeah. We should send Rocky along, too, just so they have someone with them who isn't morphing impaired."

"Good idea." Tommy leaned back and propped himself up on his elbows. "Trini can go with Adam, I'll go with you… but where does that leave the others?"

"Well Kat and Tanya looked like they had something they needed to talk about," Jason said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder. "I'll suggest they just stay here and keep an eye on things. If they say no we'll send Tanya with Adam and Kat can come with us."

"What about Billy?"

Jason blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, about that," he said slowly. "Billy's… gonna be doing an autopsy on Zach."

Tommy's mouth dropped open but Jason held up a finger. "Now before you say anything, just hear me out here. You saw what he looked like in there; you saw what those things did to him. Billy thinks that if he examines him more closely he can get us some information about their weapons, how they work, how they're used, and maybe even figure out a way to protect us from them. We need that kind of intel, especially now, when we know so little."

Tommy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Wow."

"Something wrong?"

"No, I just…" Tommy trailed off and licked his lips. "Rationally, strategically, it makes perfect sense. We're in a horrible position right now, we need all the help we can get, and Zach isn't there anymore, all that's left on that bed is just meat, and I know all that, but –"

"But if we agree to this it means he's really gone," Jason finished softly.

"Yeah," Tommy said after a minute. He scrunched his mouth up to one side. "You told the others?"

"Not me personally, no. I thought Billy said he was going to but I don't know if he's gotten around to it yet." Jason put his hands on his knees and leveraged himself onto his feet. "Though I don't blame you if you're not up to dropping that particular bombshell right now. I'm willing to take the heat for that one as long as I know you have my back."

Tommy rose to his feet as well. "Always, bro." He held out a hand, Jason slapped it with his own, and for the first time that long day, the two young men smiled at each other.

"Come on," Jason said, gesturing to the door. "We have a world to save."

"Avengers, assemble," Tommy muttered as they turned to leave, the door swinging shut behind them and the lights flickering out, leaving the gym dark and quiet once more.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry about the delay, this chapter was REALLY dialogue heavy and gave me all kinds of trouble. Next time there'll be a lot more action and a lot less waiting. Thanks for reading!**


	7. Homecoming

**Scorched Earth**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, just the right to put them through hell for my own amusement. Saban owns everything Power Rangers related. Anything you don't recognize is mine. **

**Plot Summary: When a nameless evil invades Earth, killing everything in its path, the first eleven Power Rangers must face an enemy beyond anything they've ever encountered; and this time, they'll be pushed farther than some of them are willing to go. **

**Timeline: **_**Very **_**AU from the moment Zeo started; slightly AU from the moment Jason, Zack and Trini left. Takes place midway through Zeo, only Zeo didn't happen. Jason, Trini and Zack are still attending the Peace Conference in Geneva, Kim is still in Florida training for the Pan Globals, and Aisha is still in Africa. When they left, however, their powers weren't transferred – they still have them, and five new powers were created for their replacements. Also, that whole letter thing didn't happen, either. The current team, led by Tommy, is Billy, Rocky, Adam, Kat and Tanya.**

**Pairings: Jason/Trini, Tommy/Kim, Rocky/Aisha; others may come later.**

**A/N: This story assumes that the Rangers were juniors in high school when they got their original powers, meaning they are currently in their second year of college, putting their ages at approximately 20-21.**

**Warning: Rated M for graphic violence, language, crude humor and disturbing content, including major character death. (Nothing too explicit as far as sexual content, I'll keep that PG-13.) Essentially, this is what I imagine an R-rated Power Rangers movie would've looked like. If only, right?**

* * *

**Chapter 7: "Homecoming"**

"**The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."  
****- George S. Patton**

**Command Center  
****Main Chamber  
****Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****6:30 PM PDT**

Tommy and Jason reentered the Main Chamber to a dull murmur of scattered conversation that permeated every corner of the vast room. The two of them paused in the doorway for a moment and took a quick inventory of everyone present. Billy and Kim sat against a row of control consoles along the back wall, near Zordon's tube, holding what looked like a framed photograph; occasionally one of them would point at something and smile. Aisha sat on the floor at the base of the Viewing Globe, arms around her knees, looking up at Tanya, who stood leaning against the Globe itself, arms crossed nervously across her chest. The two of them radiated anxiety; as Tommy watched, Aisha rocked back and forth on the floor, gently bouncing her weight off the balls of her feet. Tanya was drumming the fingers of both hands on the exposed skin of her arms with no discernible rhythm whatsoever as the two women presumably lobbed anxious small-time banter between them.

The most noise, however, came from the far corner of the room near the double doors that led to the Zord Hangar, where Adam, Rocky, Kat and Trini stood clustered tightly together, engaged in a hushed yet animated argument. The two men in the doorway couldn't pick up any actual words, but the insistent hiss of emphatic consonants and the angry slashing and pointing gestures told them all they needed to know. Jason turned to Tommy and raised an eyebrow. Tommy shrugged and tossed his friend a wry half-smile. "Don't worry about it, bro. They're probably just letting off a little steam. We're all a little on edge right now – when was the last time you heard from _your_ family?"

Jason sighed and nodded. "Yeah," he said under his breath. He licked his lips, stuck his hands in his pockets, and whistled loudly through his front teeth. "Yo!"

The room went silent. Eight pairs of eyes swung to face them, some with arms still hanging frozen in their last gesture. Jason said nothing else, simply jerked his head to the right; the others responded immediately. Tommy and Jason moved into the room, letting the door slide shut behind them as they took up positions in front of Zordon's tube, which still stood empty. Jason kept his hands in his pockets and leaned his butt against the base of the tube. As the others gathered around them Tommy shot Jason a questioning glance over his shoulder. The Red Ranger cocked his head incredulously to one side. "I already gave my big speech today. The hell are you lookin' at me for?"

Tommy smiled and shook his head before turning back to look out at the others. "OK, guys, here's the deal."

Zordon chose that moment to reappear. His visage shimmered into existence in midsentence, so suddenly Tommy pulled a midair 180 and reflexively curled a fist. Jason just calmly leaned his head back against the tube and stared straight up at their mentor, though Tommy couldn't imagine his view being all that impressive.

"-angers," Zordon was saying as he appeared. "I have been attempting to gather as much information as I can on these mysterious invaders."

Rocky opened his mouth as if to interrupt and Adam all but stomped on his foot to stop him. The two of them exchanged deadly glares; Rocky took a single, menacing step toward the other young man but Adam held his ground, jabbing a single extended finger into Rocky's sternum. Tommy watched the silent interaction and sighed to himself. He turned and tried to exchange annoyed glances with Kim, but the slim brunette refused to meet his eye. He felt a knot of frustration begin to form in his stomach as he watched her gaze fall everywhere in the room except on him. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He knew Zordon was still talking, but Tommy grunted, ran a hand through his hair and interrupted him for the first time in his life.

"Zordon," he said sharply, a little louder than he'd meant. Jason frowned at him from the base of the tube. Tommy had heard stories of a couple of times Jason had dared speak over Zordon before Tommy had moved to town, and in most of them the resulting glares alone would've driven lesser men insane. It wasn't that the Rangers were afraid of Zordon, or that he'd ever given any indication that he didn't want them to think for themselves, but during times like this, Zordon preferred to run things in a disciplined, militaristic style, and he was in charge. Period. Plus, nobody there had ever actually seen him really get angry, and as much as they all loved the guy, none of them could deny the thought of it made them nervous.

Now, the great mage's face turned and regarded him; perhaps it was his imagination running away with him, but Tommy thought he read an undeniable hint of contempt in those features.

Wondering vaguely if this was what an ant under a magnifying glass felt like, Tommy gulped and steeled himself before plowing ahead. "Listen, I realize how important this is, but don't we have something a little more urgent to take care of before we worry about that?" The White Ranger jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "There are four Power Coins back in Angel Grove that we still need to go after."

"Not to mention we all have families we need to check up on," Jason said, stepping away from the tube and standing to Tommy's left. He crossed his arms defiantly over his chest.

The others gaped at the two of them as they stood staring determinedly up at Zordon, several of them half expecting the old wizard to smite them where they stood. After a long moment, the old Eltarian spoke, slowly and calmly but with an undeniable undertone of displeasure at being interrupted. "Very well, then. What do the two of you propose?"

Tommy and Jason looked at each other. From here on out they would be treading new ground. Jason raised an eyebrow; shockingly, Tommy thought he saw one corner of the Red Ranger's mouth curl upward into the smallest hint of a smile.

"Oh my god. You're loving this, aren't you?" He asked in a stunned whisper. Jason's grin grew wider.

"Hey, I didn't get this job for my ability to be cautious," he replied. "And for the record, I don't remember asking you to stick our necks under the guillotine. You did that all by yourself; I'm just here for the fireworks." Jason's eyes twinkled. "Now, are you gonna do the honors, or should I?"

"Oh, by all means," Tommy said, making an exaggerated gesture of invitation.

"Rangers." Now Zordon made no attempt to mask his annoyance. "_What do you propose?"_

Jason turned back to the floating head. "Re-engage teleportation capabilities. We want to go down there and get those coins, and get our families out of there, if we can."

"I'm afraid that poses too great a risk of exposing your identities," Zordon said with regret. "I cannot allow you to –"

"All due respect, Zordon." This time Rocky spoke up before Adam had a chance to stop him. "You can take your rule about keeping our identities a secret and shove it up your…wherever you shove things up a head in a tube. Do you really think for one second that any of us would choose that over our own families?" His words were met by a murmur of assent. Jason spoke up again.

"Rocky's right, Zordon. This is something we have to do. Tommy and I just spent the last half hour planning this out, we're more than ready to get going." He stepped forward and lowered his voice a little. "You've always trusted us to do the right thing before. It's why you chose us in the first place, isn't it? Well I'm asking you. Please. Trust us now."

There was a long moment during which none of them moved; most of them barely breathed. They hadn't actually defied Zordon like this in over four years of serving as Rangers together; it seemed even now, there were things they weren't really prepared for. Rocky shifted his weight from one foot to another, his palms growing sweaty. Adam's fingers played with the hem of his shirt; Tanya and Kat took each other's hand, their eyes locked on the tube. Billy took his glasses off, wiped them on his shirt, and put them back on five consecutive times. Kim just stared at the floor.

Jason and Tommy fought with every ounce of willpower they possessed not to move a muscle.

After what felt like an eternity, Zordon laughed softly and smiled at them. "Very well," he said, much less sternly this time. The entire room seemed to deflate with the strength of their relief. "You are right, Rangers. Of course I would not expect you to hold the rules of Ranger service in greater regard than your families' safety. I admire all of your courage in standing together to make this argument. However, before I reactivate the teleportation system I need to make sure you've thought this through. We've just lost a teammate and a very dear friend; Zachary's death hurts all of us very deeply, and I'm sure the desire for revenge is still very fresh in many of your minds. As unpleasant as it is to say, if you wish to charge into a potential battle I want to be sure you're thinking clearly. Now," he looked to Tommy and Jason in particular. "Jason. Tommy. What is your plan for this mission?"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Zordon," Jason said. "You're right; we're all hurting right now. But I think we all agree that the best way to make Zack proud would be to get out there and start doing what we do best, and that's making the world safer."

"Yeah," Tommy added. "Besides, we're all going stir-crazy in here. Or did anybody actually understand what Rocky said before?" He looked around the room at some of the faces beginning to finally relax. "Now," he continued, turning his back to the tube so he faced his fellow Rangers. "Where were we? Oh, yeah. Massive invading alien army, world's a bombed-out hunk of charcoal, and Jason chose now to dump speech duties on me. So, as I was saying: here's the deal. We don't know jack shit about what these things are, where they came from or what they want. Like Zordon just said, information is extremely limited. What we do know is that we have four Rangers with no Power Coins and eleven families worth of people whose condition is still unknown. Now, we've learned from our global monitoring system that the attacks against Earth ground to a screeching halt the minute we got back here; what we don't know is whether that had anything to do with us or whether it was just the most convenient coincidence in history, which means that whatever we do here, we have no choice but to assume the worst and haul ass." Tommy put one hand in his pocket and began motioning with the other as he paced the room.

"Jason and I agree that the best way to do this is to split up. We can't risk these guys detecting that we're not dead and blasting us again any more than we absolutely have to, so if we're gonna do this, we have to do it all at once." He looked around at his friends, pausing on each face long enough to make eye contact. "Problem is, the four people who absolutely _have_ to go out there – the ones who know best where the coins are hidden – are morphing impaired and thus have no way to defend themselves. So. Here's how it's gonna be." Tommy raised both his hands and held them up, spread apart, index fingers extended. "We go in groups. One person who can morph, one person who can't. Jason and I have already agreed to go to his place together. Adam, you're with Trini; Rocky, you go with Kim and Aisha. Everyone else stays here to watch our backs. We go in, get the coins, check on our families and teleport back _as soon as fucking possible_. Once we're at full strength, we can figure out our next step. Questions?"

The word was barely out of Tommy's mouth when Aisha's hand went up. "Yeah, I have a question. Can I change my group? I'd rather not dive headfirst into the Alien Apocalypse with Daddy's Little Defect over here as my only backup." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at Rocky.

"Yeah, well, I'd rather not spend the next hour playing Driving Miss Crazy through the aftermath of a goddamn nuclear holocaust, but we can't all have what we want," Rocky retorted, gesturing angrily at Aisha's back.

"Oh, for the love of _god_, would you two knock that shit off?" Jason pushed himself off of Zordon's tube and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Rocky, switch with Adam, and then both of you shut the fuck up."

Aisha flung a hand out toward Jason and let it flop to her side. Rocky glanced at Adam, a glance that quickly became a glare at the grin on Adam's face.

Kat looked up abruptly from where she sat atop a control console. "Wait a minute." She rose to her feet; every eye in the room was suddenly on her. "I hate to ask this, but…" she took a deep breath and continued very softly, as though afraid of her own words. "What about Zack's coin? We can't just leave it out there; if you're right and these things know how to track us somehow or whatever, what's to say they won't find it and use it? At the very least we have to get it and bring it back here to hide it from them."

"Katherine is correct, Rangers," Zordon's voice boomed through the chamber. "With its previous owner deceased, the Black Power Coin is vulnerable to having its powers manipulated or tampered with. We cannot risk it falling into the wrong hands."

"Right," Tommy muttered. He shot a glance at Jason and received a nod in return. "OK, Kat, Tanya, you two go together to Zack's place. Search for the coin, check up on his family and your own and then meet the rest of us back here. Anything else?"

"What about Billy?" Tanya still stood within leaning range of the Viewing Globe; as she spoke, she glanced from Tommy to Jason to Billy and back again. "What's he gonna do while the rest of us are gone?"

Billy looked up at Tanya from his seat on the floor. He removed his glasses, wiped them on his shirt and began to slowly stand up, his mouth working soundlessly around words he couldn't spit out. Jason chose that moment to jump in.

"Billy's gonna be watching our backs, monitoring the scanners, maintaining teleportation capacity…you know, the usual."

Billy cracked a smile. "Thanks, Jason," he said much more calmly. "But they need to know. Besides, you've never really been great at forced nonchalance."

"I found it very convincing," Trini interjected, raising her hand and winking at Jason, who rolled his eyes and grumbled.

"Don't patronize me."

"Anyway," Kim said loudly. "What do we need to know, Billy?"

Billy sighed. "Umm…" his voice trailed off and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I'm gonna be doing an autopsy on Zack."

A sudden silence hung over the room for a moment. The Rangers exchanged a few confused looks before a general murmur of "Yeah, OK," ran through the chamber.

The Blue Ranger raised an eyebrow. "Hold on. You guys are all OK with this?"

Rocky cocked his head to one side, as though bewildered. "Uh, yeah. We need all the intel we can get right now. We all hate that Zack's gone but there's nothing we can do to change that anymore, so…why not? It can't possibly make things worse, and we all trust you to be respectful."

Adam smirked beside him. "And we've all almost completely depleted our reservoir of maturity in handling this issue," he said. "Which is probably why we've all been acting like whiny little bitches for the last couple hours."

"Well, now that that crisis is averted, let's get to work," Tommy said, rubbing his hands together. Suddenly, he froze in place and flicked his eyes back and forth. "What's wrong with this picture?"

Jason snapped his fingers. "Alpha," he answered. "I _thought_ something was wrong here. Where the hell is he?"

Trini pointed to the double doors. "Zord Hangar. He's running diagnostics."

Jason seemed satisfied with that. He interlaced his fingers and cracked his knuckles. "All right, then. Everyone ready? Trini, you're with Rocky; Aisha and Kim, you're with Adam. Remember, guys, stick together and only morph as an absolute last resort – I don't want to make it any easier for these things to track us down. I want this done fast but done _right_, and for Christ's sake be careful. Last thing we need is another casualty."

A collective sigh went through the room before Tommy said, "OK, Billy. Initiate teleportation."

Billy nodded and reached for a switch. "Good luck, Rangers," Zordon said. "And may the power protect you."

Jason turned and shot Zordon a two finger salute as all but one of the people in the Main Chamber dissolved into beams of flickering light, a wide spectrum of colored rays that shot straight up at dizzying speeds and disappeared through the Command Center's distant roof.

* * *

**Campbell/Hart Residence  
****Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****7:15 PM PDT**

As the pink, green and purple sparks shimmered out of existence around them, Kim, Adam and Aisha glanced at each other in confusion as they took in their surroundings. The three of them stood atop the roof of Kimberly's house, looking out over a bombed-out suburban street filled with smoking hulks of metal that had once been cars. Over the tops of the few still-intact trees scattered along the side of the street below, they could see rising columns of smoke and the charred husks of several taller buildings. A few of them still burned, the air around them saturated with the smells of smoke and dust. Aisha moved slowly along the roof to the nearest ledge, her shoes crunching on the small chunks of debris that littered the surface. When the ground beneath her feet ended, the purple-clad girl leaned forward over the side as far as she dared and peered down at what lay below. "Um…guys?"

Kim was a step ahead. "What the hell are we doing on my roof? Couldn't Billy have just put us down in the front yard like he always does?"

"Maybe, but I must say I think we can get to your room faster from here." Adam caught his companions' attention and pointed to the gaping hole in the roof a few dozen feet from where they'd landed. Kim and Aisha came running over, the three Rangers gathering at the edge of the hole as the blood slowly drained from their faces in shock. Through the opening in the roof they could see into Kim's bedroom.

What was left of it. Whatever had made the hole had continued along its trajectory through the bedroom wall and taken out a sizeable chunk of the hallway at the top of the stairs on its way out. From their vantage point on the roof, the three of them could see all the way through to the side yard, where a divot at least ten feet long had been carved out of the grass. Kim took an unsteady step back from the hole and raised a hand to her mouth. Adam glanced up at her and frowned in concern at her greenish pall. "Kim? You OK?"

Kim didn't answer, just turned on her heel and ran to the edge of the roof. She skidded to a stop inches from the edge and leaned forward, hands on her knees, preparing to throw up, when she saw it.

"Guys?" She called over her shoulder. Adam and Aisha hurried over to her and Kim pointed frantically over the edge. "Look."

The others followed Kim's finger and beheld what remained of the front part of Kim's house. The porch had been covered by a wood and steel awning supported by columns, attached to the house at a point just under twenty feet off the ground. Upon glancing down at the porch, Adam and Aisha realized that the support columns had been destroyed; without them to support it, the awning's weight had caused it to collapse onto the porch, tearing a huge chunk out of the house's façade as it did so. Where the porch had once been was nothing but a pile of random debris.

Adam whistled softly. "Shit. Explains your front door question."

Aisha stepped back toward the hole and raised her communicator to her mouth. "Billy, it's Aisha, come in."

"Hey Sha, what's up? Everything OK?" Billy's voice squawked from the communicator.

"Got a question for you," Aisha said, glancing up briefly as Adam rejoined her. Kim still stood at the ledge, staring down at the devastation in her front yard. "Why are we on the roof of Kim's house? Couldn't you have just put us down in the front yard?"

"Adam didn't tell you?" At Billy's question, Adam winced and groaned.

"God damn it."

Billy chuckled and went on. "As Alpha told Adam a few hours ago, there's some kind of interference out there that's fucking up our teleportation and communication systems. We can't teleport you anywhere less than thirty feet off the ground. You guys are lucky Kim's house is so big and relatively intact; I had to put Tommy and Jason down on top of a grocery store almost four blocks from Tommy's house. It was the closest place high enough for a safe teleport."

"Jesus," Aisha breathed, running a hand over her face. She looked up again and saw over Adam's shoulder that Kim was still standing at the edge of the roof, staring down at the destruction. "Thanks Billy," she said tersely, cutting the link before Billy could respond. "Kim?" She called out to her friend. "You coming?"

Kim turned and looked at her, and both Aisha and Adam were stunned by the look of terror on her face. She pointed over the edge one more time. "There's something down there."

Adam frowned. "What?" He and Aisha returned to the ledge and looked down again. "Kim, there's nothing there, it's just a pile of wood and sheetrock."

"Damn it, Adam, I'm telling you there was something down there," Kim replied insistently. "It stuck its head out through the hole above the porch like it heard us talking, but I don't think it saw us." Adam sighed.

"OK, fine. I believe you. But it doesn't change what we came here for. We still have to get both your Power Coins and check on all of our families, so unless you're in the mood for a climb I suggest we get back to that hole."

Kim seemed hesitant, but at a supportive look from Aisha she nodded, squared her shoulders and followed her friends back to the gaping maw in the roof. "All right, Kim," Adam said, holding out a hand. "You know the room the best. You go first."

Kim arched her eyebrows. "Me? Of the three of us, which one A) is still morphing capable and B) had this idea in the first place?"

Adam smirked at her. "OK," he said. "Fine. Help lower me down. I only weigh 190 pounds, I'm sure that's nothing to you two." Kim and Aisha looked at each other sheepishly. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Ladies first!" He took hold of Kim's hand and practically dragged her to the lip of the opening. "Ready?" She nodded. "1…2…3!" Kim hopped off the roof and swung down into the hole, letting Adam hold her weight.

"OK, I'm good," she said after steadying herself. Adam released his hold and she dropped the remaining few feet to the singed carpet. The room was deathly quiet, the only sounds her own breathing and the wind whistling by the puncture wound in the ceiling. Kim took a moment to orient herself. The coin wasn't actually in here – she'd hidden it behind a tiny access panel in the bathroom above the shower head that she knew no one else would look behind. Edging forward carefully toward the door, Kim tried to ignore the sight of most of her Earthly possessions lying upturned, broken and burned in the wake of the attack. She pressed the soles of her feet ever so gently into the carpet, breathing slowly in an attempt to slow her rapidly accelerating heart rate.

A sound echoed from her right. She snapped her head around and saw only her closet door, hanging from a broken hinge and creaking softly as it swung back and forth. Kim sighed and wiped the sheen of sweat away from her forehead. She took another careful step forward, then another. Finally she curled her fingers around the door jamb and tentatively extended a foot out over the hole in the hallway floor.

This time the sound she heard was much more menacing. A series of footsteps, loud, angry, approaching rapidly from the left, and a chilling growling noise that reminded her of werewolf movies. Kim yanked her foot back into the room and hugged the wall, praying that whatever it was would pass her by and not find her long enough for her to morph. After a long, tense moment, she seemed to get her wish – the footsteps seemed to retreat and the growling quieted to nothing. Sighing deeply with relief, she gathered her courage, threw the door open and practically leapt through the doorway, across the giant gap in the floor, and into the corridor.

And recoiled in terror at the horrific sight that awaited her there.

* * *

**Angel Grove High School  
****Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****7:15 PM PDT**

"Well this is just goddamn perfect." Rocky folded his arms over his chest in exasperation and stared out over the parking lot of the high school, where a few bombed-out corpses of cars still lay smoldering amidst the craters and scattered fires. He sighed, shook his head and turned angrily on one heel, the soles of his shoes crunching on the gravel and singed brick as he strode toward where Trini stood by the emergency access door. "Most advanced technology for three solar systems and we can't even teleport any closer than half a mile from either of our houses. I missed the part where our teleportation controls were being sponsored by Delta."

Trini didn't respond right away. She leaned a shoulder against the door and tried the latch. When nothing happened, she gripped the latch tighter and thrust her weight against it several times, grunting with exertion. The door still wouldn't give. Finally, Trini turned and glared at Rocky. "You gonna help me or you gonna stand there and bitch?"

Rocky raised a surprised eyebrow. "The hell is your problem?"

Trini snorted and shoved past him, making her way to the opposite ledge where she could look out over the field behind the school. The property continued past the destroyed football field, baseball diamond, tennis courts and several soccer fields before terminating in a thin line of trees that hid the school ground from the adjacent subdivision, where both of their houses hopefully still stood. Tendrils of smoke drifted lazily up into the air, the sky turned a dull, stony gray by the dark clouds of smog. Rocky stared at her back for a long moment; he was about to step toward her when she turned her head to one side and spoke.

"How much time do you got?"

Rocky cracked a bitter half smile and nodded. "Yeah. That kind of day."

Trini let out a cynical laugh. "You haven't exactly been helping."

He frowned, a gesture he knew she couldn't see. "Last time I checked we were both on the same team."

She whirled around and scowled at him. "So why don't you start fucking acting like it?" In the stunned silence that followed Trini took a step toward him. "I don't think there's ever been a time when our chances of winning, of _surviving_, have depended more on our ability to work as a cohesive unit, and yet instead of doing anything constructive or useful, you've wasted most of your time since the attacks started questioning what Zordon's doing as though _he_ was the one that caused all this." She swung an arm out to include the entire dystopian landscape laid out before them.

Rocky stood his ground. "How much of this do you think could've been avoided if he had let us teleport out sooner? He keeps trying to protect us like we were children and he's getting more and more people killed in order to do it. Aisha agrees with me."

Trini rolled her eyes. "Cut the bullshit, Rocky. The only reason I'm with you right now is because Aisha doesn't want anything to do with you. What, did you think her whole thing about not being in the same group with you was some kind of deception tactic? You're just lucky I have more self control than she does or I probably would've kicked your ass by now."

His tone became deathly serious. "You would've _tried_."

Trini put her hands on her hips and regarded him for a long moment. "All right. Fine. I think we both realize the other isn't going to back down, so for the time being can we please just get this done? Once I have my coin back I can beat you in an even fight." He arched his eyebrows at that. "Now go on," she continued, motioning toward the door. "You're the one with the morphing-enhanced strength. Why don't you make us a way down?"

He glanced from her to the door and back before shrugging and stepping toward it, clenching and unclenching his fists. As he passed her, she grabbed him by the shoulder and leaned in close. "And please, at least _try_ to do it stealthily. The less attention we alert to our being here, the better."

He grinned. "Please. I am a master of grace and agility." Before Trini had a chance to respond, Rocky turned and darted past her, sprinting toward the edge of the roof at full speed. At the last possible second, he dove forward, launching himself into a round-off back handspring that brought his hands down directly on the edge of the roof. Letting his momentum take over, Rocky swung around in a wide arc, bent his knees, and slammed his feet into a third floor window, shattering the glass and sending him flying through the new opening. His head cleared the window sill by inches and he slammed to the hard floor on his back, driving the wind from his lungs.

"Ow," he grunted, rolling slowly to one side and rising to stand on shaky legs. As he glanced around, he realized he was standing in one of the biology labs. The room that led to the emergency roof access door was one they'd used numerous times; it was a back room that could be accessed from any of the third-floor science classrooms, and Rocky knew the way like the back of his hand.

Brushing some of the dust off of his shirt, Rocky jogged across the room and opened a door behind the teacher's desk to reveal a storage corridor, where all of the science equipment was kept. The room was dark – no windows provided any natural lighting and the bulbs lay dormant. Jagged, irregular shadows deepened the inky void that lay in front of him; the air was stiflingly still. Rocky felt a bead of sweat trace a winding path down the back of his neck. As he moved forward, he thought he heard something moving in the darkness. He froze on pure instinct, one hand groping the wall for a light switch.

_As though they'll actually still have power, you idiot._

Wincing at a fresh wave of pain that jolted through his shoulder blades, Rocky took another few hesitant steps forward, his hands wandering down to the morpher at the small of his back. The ladder to the roof access door was only another few yards down this corridor, if only he could –

That's when he heard them. Footsteps, several of them, moving his way fast. Unnaturally fast. Faster than any human should be able to –

_Oh, balls._

Rocky charged forward, dodging the odd shelf and leaping over anything dark enough to look solid as he raced for the ladder. As he reached the base, he heard the footsteps growing louder. Closer. Faster.

Angrier.

He skidded to a stop at the base of the yellow wrought-iron ladder that led to the roof; at the same time, he felt his hand close around the morpher on his belt.

"Trini!" He called up toward the ceiling. "Get the hell out of the way, we got company!" With a quick flash of blinding crimson light, he activated the morpher, drew his blaster without even waiting for the armor to fully encase him and squeezed the trigger, letting the blast charge up to almost seventy percent full power before releasing a massive energy surge that blew a hole in the ceiling almost ten feet wide. The new light spilling in cast grotesque shadows of whatever was closing in on him on the floor, but Rocky didn't take the time to look around. He bent at the knees and launched himself into the air, soaring out through the hole and toward the edge of the roof. His feet made contact with the ground just long enough for him to barrel toward Trini, wrap her in a bear hug and fling them both over the edge, dropping the thirty-plus feet to the ground. Rocky allowed his morphed form to take the brunt of the impact, shielding Trini with his body as best he could as they rolled away from the building and darted under the bleachers near the track for cover.

As he demorphed, Rocky shot a glance at Trini, who was staring back up at the school, panting, her eyes still shining from the shock of what had just happened. "Well, if they didn't know we were here before they certainly do now."

"Sorry," he muttered, preparing himself to cover the open area between here and their ultimate goal. "No other choice. Something in there was closing in on me."

Trini turned and surveyed the area before her eyes flicked back to meet his own. She braced herself for the dash, coiling her body against the metal supports like an Olympic runner in the starting blocks, and motioned for him to do the same. Just as Rocky was about to throw himself into the line of fire, Trini looked down and shook her head, a wry smile worming its way onto her face.

He nudged her. "What?" She scooted closer and put her mouth right up to his ear.

"You have all the grace and agility of a retarded hippo."

The two of them laughed then, huddled there under the bleachers; nervous, frightened, almost manically giddy laughter, laughter borne out of desperation to avoid going mad in the face of one's own impending mortality.

They took the briefest of moments to stifle themselves.

Then they ran.

* * *

**CommTek Radio Tower  
****2 Miles Southeast of the Angel Grove Youth Center  
****Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****7:15 PM PDT**

Kat curled her fingers tighter around the thin, cold metal support beam and leaned out a little further from the tower, squinting against the harsh blasts of dust that buffeted her face as she peered across the ruined landscape that spread out below her. She took several slow but shallow breaths through her mouth, trying not to let the dust get blown down her throat.

"What do you see?" Tanya called up. Kat glanced down at where her friend was perched, about ten feet below her, crouched on a small metal platform next to an electrical box. The two of them had landed atop the radio tower near the Youth Center, only a couple streets down from Tanya's house. Before making a potentially dangerous descent, they decided they would check to see if they could locate any potential threats.

"Well," Kat called back, pointing at things as she spoke. "The ship hasn't moved – it's still floating over where City Hall used to be. The Youth Center is completely blown to hell; I think the High School might be intact but it's hard to tell from here, and the only activity appears to be over by the park." She pointed over Tanya's head at where a crowd had begun to form in the still-smoldering remains of Angel Grove Park, tiny shapes barely distinguishable as people milling about among the small fires and irregular patches of grass left unscathed. "There are a lot of people going over there for some reason."

Tanya followed Kat's finger and frowned. "That seem safe to you? Cause from what I can tell it's got suspicious written all over it."

Kat climbed down a few feet so she was even with Tanya. "Only one real way to find out."

Tanya shook her head. "No way, Kat. You heard what they said back there, these things can lock onto our energy signatures. Morphing now would be like holding up a giant neon sign saying 'Bomb Here.' At the very least, if we're going to investigate this, we need something to draw their attention elsewhere."

Kat thought for a moment before lifting her communicator to her mouth. "Billy? Billy it's Kat, come in."

Billy's voice answered a second later. "Yeah, hey Kat. What's happening?"

"Tanya and I have a large crowd of survivors gathering in the park under what may be unpleasant circumstances. We need a way to distract them so that we can morph and get down there fast before any more shit starts hitting the fan."

Kat had barely finished talking when an explosion ripped through the uneasy silence that had descended on the aftermath. The two Rangers whipped their heads around in time to see the roof of the high school explode outward, a blast of red light tearing through it and soaring away into the sky. Kat and Tanya just stared at it silently for a moment, mouths hanging open, then slowly turned back to each other.

Kat shrugged. "Um…never mind, Billy. That'll work."

As the two of them pulled out their morphers, they heard Billy start to mutter, "Shit, that came from the high school, didn't it? I knew putting Rocky and Trini together was a bad idea…" He said more, but Kat cut off the link and nodded to Tanya.

"Ready?"

"Whenever you are." The two of them activated the morphers, and as the blinding flashes of gold and silver light began to engulf them, they released their hold on the tower and let themselves fall. Kat felt her stomach leap into her throat, the wind whipping by as she watched the armor begin to encase her. Glancing to her left, she saw Tanya a few feet above her, completely armored now, tucking her chin and relaxing her knees in preparation for the landing. Kat braced herself as well, and a few seconds later she felt the impact, cushioned by the armor against the bones of her lower back.

As they hit the ground, the two women tucked and rolled away from the tower, deactivating their morphers as they went. The armor disappeared as quickly as it had come, leaving them back in their civilian clothes.

"You know, I never thought we'd ever be using that armor as a glorified parachute," Kat observed as they brushed themselves off and moved toward the growing crowd of people nearby. "But you know what they say about desperate times."

Tanya chuckled. "I just wish we could draw our blasters without being morphed, I really don't like the idea of approaching a potential extraterrestrial clusterfuck without a handheld laser strapped to my hip." The two of them paused and looked at each other for a moment before she added, "Our lives are weird."

Giggling softly, the two women darted across the street and took cover in a handful of trees that stood relatively undamaged at the edge of the park. From their vantage point, they could see now that the crowd of people they had observed from atop the tower was actually surrounded by some kind of fence made of shimmering bluish-green lines of energy that ran between sets of metal poles about ten feet tall. The only opening they could see was blocked by a gate made of a single slab of thick metal, no handle or keypad of any kind visible on its shiny outer surface.

"What the hell is that?" Kat whispered, pushing a branch away for a better look.

"It looks like some kind of prison camp," Tanya said, poking her head out and daring a look around the corner. "That fence goes on for at least long enough to contain the entire park, if not more. We should try to get closer."

Kat glanced around a few times. "The coast looks clear. Let's go." They emerged from their cover and walked carefully toward the enclosure, trying to appear totally ordinary as they strode across the charred grass, entirely exposed. Upon approach, they realized the people inside the fence had all been divided into small clusters of six or seven that had been chained together, their restraints glowing with a soft red light. Kat trotted up to the fence and began walking its length, searching for something inside that might indicate what these people were doing here.

"Kat!" Tanya's voice echoed across the open area like a gunshot. Kat jogged back to where her companion still stood, rooted to one spot, mouth agape as she stared at something inside the fence.

"Are you crazy?" Kat hissed angrily in Tanya's ear. "Do you _want _them to come and kill us?" In response, Tanya simply reached out, grabbed Kat by the chin and swung her head around to face the fence. What Kat saw then took a few seconds to register, but when it did, her eyes widened in shock and she couldn't help but gasp a little. The group of people standing nearest them, about seven strong and not ten feet away, were strikingly familiar, especially the two dark-skinned ones.

"Holy shit, Tan," she whispered, her voice made weak by shock. "Those are your parents."

* * *

**SaveMart Supermarket  
****Angel Grove, CA  
****August 28, 2012  
****7:15 PM PDT**

"We clear?"

Tommy flinched a little as Jason came up behind him. He was standing at the edge of the roof of the grocery store where he'd just been to buy snacks for a Ranger party a few nights ago and staring out over a bombed out parking lot, cars overturned and smoking, small fires still burning on exposed patches of grass. He turned his head slightly and regarded Jason in his peripheral vision. "I think I read about this in a Cormac McCarthy novel once."

"No, I think you saw it in a _Mad Max _movie," Jason replied, slugging him softly on the arm. "Seriously, though – we clear? I'd prefer to avoid a roaming gang of bikers killing us for getting between them and the nearest gas station."

Tommy smiled wryly and nodded. "We're clear for most of the way to my place, as far as I can tell. Shouldn't take long to check on my folks and then head to your house."

"Good." Jason turned his back to Tommy and glanced around the roof. "First things first though – we need to find a way down that doesn't involve morphing or a forty-foot fall. You see an emergency ladder or anything around here we can use?"

Tommy hesitated, as though afraid that by tearing his gaze away from the landscape he would doom it to further destruction. Finally, though, he looked at Jason over his shoulder. "There has to be some kind of roof access around here somewhere. We just have to find it."

Jason didn't say anything, just shifted his gaze to the ground and began scanning their surroundings. Suddenly he stopped and pointed. "There." Tommy followed his friend's finger and noticed what appeared to be a trapdoor set into the roof, white metal standing out against dull gray of gravel and concrete. Upon approach, the two of them realized the door was held shut by a latch that only appeared to open from the inside. Jason bent down and started grabbing and pulling at a few random places that might have been structural weak points with no luck. Grunting in frustration, he looked up at Tommy and arched his eyebrows expectantly. "Suggestions?"

"Oh yeah," Tommy said with mock enthusiasm. "Let me just pull a fucking crowbar out of my ass and we'll be golden."

"Well it's either that or we're pryin this bitch open with nothing but your sarcasm," Jason replied, rocking back onto his butt and staring up at Tommy. "And as biting as it is I don't think it can bend metal."

"You should've been here for my graduation speech," Tommy muttered, folding his arms over his chest. He let out a breath and took another look around the rooftop, the flat surface spreading out over a sizeable area, topped with gray concrete and a thin layer of gravel that had somehow survived the earlier bombardment completely intact. Snorting, the White Ranger turned on his heel to face out over the parking lot, where the setting sun was still barely visible through the haze of dust and smoke that blanketed the town like the inside of a snow globe, and began pacing, heading for the edge. He hadn't taken five steps when he felt the roof give way beneath him and then he was falling, a startled yelp leaping from his mouth; for a millisecond or two he felt his feet actually kick back and forth as if trying to walk on thin air.

"Jase-!" Was all he managed to choke out before his momentum finally tilted him forward and his chest crashed into the edge of the newly formed hole, driving the air from his lungs and jarring his hands free from whatever precarious hold they might have managed to find. Tommy began sliding backwards into the hole, unable to see behind him but knowing what lay ahead: either he'd have to morph to protect himself from the impact and bring a million man alien death march right down on their heads or he'd be so torn by indecision he'd hit the ground and die. Neither one seemed incredibly appealing – and then Jason was there, skidding to a halt and diving to his chest as he came around the edge of the hole, wrapping both his hands around Tommy's wrists and digging in with his knees.

"God damn it," he grunted, straining a little at Tommy's weight. "How many of you people am I gonna have to catch today?"

"Oh, come on," Tommy said with a sheepish laugh. "We both know how much you love playing the hero."

"Tell that to the gravel digging into my stomach." Jason pulled himself forward and craned his neck to peer over Tommy's head. "There's a bunch of support beams about a foot down, they're maybe six inches wide. If I let go can you land on one without racking yourself?"

Tommy shrugged. "I'm sure I've done worse things to my balls in the past four years."

"I so did not need to hear that." Jason groaned. He licked his lips and took a deep breath. "Ready? One, two…"

He let go just as a huge explosion echoed across the landscape, shaking the ground and casting the sky a blinding shade of red. Jason flinched at the sudden tremor, jerking to his right and letting first Tommy's right hand and then his left slip free of his grasp.

That flinch probably saved Tommy's life. As Jason twisted sideways, Tommy's body was yanked around so that he was parallel to the beam below; that meant that when Jason let go of his hands, instead of the beam being between Tommy's legs it was just behind his knees. He landed initially in a seated position but he was still falling backwards and thus wound up dangling upside down from the beam by his knees. Grunting with the effort, he curled his fingers around the beam and used his biceps and stomach to pull himself back up to a seated position from which he could survey the inside of the store.

It was nearly pristine. The shelves still sat fully stocked with food, the attacks happening so fast and hard they hadn't left time for looting. A network of beams both horizontal and vertical spanned the ceiling, crisscrossing the length of the store about thirty feet above the floor. The main weight of the roof was supported by a series of six or seven thick concrete columns that erupted from evenly spaced parts of the floor like a set of stony teeth.

Except for one. Turning his gaze back toward the hole in the roof, Tommy could discern the remains of one of the columns dangling from the ceiling, its outline made jagged by the edge of the hole. He glanced down and realized immediately what had happened. A single large piece of the storefront had been blown out, the brick and plate glass window marred by an opening that held, almost cartoonishly, the shape of the fiery locomotive that had come barreling through it, leveling the column as it went.

Tommy glanced up through the hole in the roof. "Most of what's in here's still in surprisingly good shape," he called up. Jason suddenly appeared from just beyond the edge. "And even better, it looks deserted. If we can make our way down we can probably just –"

Jason didn't wait for him to finish. He brought his feet together and swan dove through the hole, catching the rail Tommy sat on in one hand and whipping his body around it. As he completed his rotation, the Red Ranger grabbed on with his other hand and locked his elbows, coming to a rest at a perfect handstand from which he bent his knees, curled his legs into his chest and planted his feet on the beam. He turned to Tommy and grinned; the White Ranger raised an eyebrow in reply. "Are you sure your shoulder was dislocated? And perhaps more pressingly, where the hell did you learn how to do that?"

"What, you think I stopped working out in Switzerland?" Jason chuckled. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't finish that sentence and jinx us up the ass. I'm guessing six more words out of your mouth and we would've had a hundred of those fuckers pouring in on us." No sooner had Jason spoken than there came the tinkling of breaking glass and the pounding thuds of dozens of footsteps from outside the store. Jason blew a frustrated breath out through his nose and rolled his eyes.

"Son of a bitch."

* * *

**Campbell/Hart Residence  
****7:20 PM**

Adam turned to Aisha and gestured toward the hole in Kim's roof. "OK, Sha, you're next." Aisha stepped forward and peered into Kim's bedroom through the ceiling, glancing nervously at the shadows that enveloped most of the room's corners and the empty hallway into which Kim had just disappeared. She was about to reply with some bit of snark and a Stephen King reference but before her mouth was even open Kim came charging back into the room, slamming the door behind her, her features twisted with terror.

"Adam!" Kim screamed, sprinting to the wall just beneath them and pressing herself against it. "Get your ass down here!"

Adam frowned. "Kim, what the hell did you see out there?"

As if in response, Kimberly's bedroom door was blasted off its hinges, leaving another gaping hole in the superstructure of her home. Aisha and Adam threw arms up to cover their eyes and Kim shrunk into a protective ball, but the blast had turned her bedroom door into a projectile, sending it barreling toward her, whipping around lethally as it went.

Adam didn't think; he moved on pure instinct. In these situations, it seemed most of the time the Rangers fared better when they did that. Leaping into the air, he activated his morpher, releasing a flash of green light as he dove toward Earth again. Just as the morph completed, he spun in a tight circle, extended a leg and caught the door in midair with a devastatingly powerful kick, bouncing it back toward the doorway where it slammed into the wall just to the left of the empty doorframe and embedded itself in the plaster. Adam completed his rotation and landed on one knee in front of Kim, throwing an arm out to balance himself. He vaguely heard Aisha cry out "Holy shit!" from the roof behind him, but by then he'd looked up and beheld what Kim had been running from.

If somebody had asked Adam three hours ago what the thing standing in front of him would look like, his combination of writing talent and battle experience could've spun him off into a thousand different terrifying directions – and every one of them would've been wrong. The thing standing in front of him probably would've given Lovecraft nightmares; Adam knew he needed to see it, to be prepared for anything so he could do his job, but there was still a very vocal part of him that wished he hadn't looked.

The creature's face could almost have passed for human, if not for the bright orange, glimmering compound eyes, the two empty slits where a nose should've been, the lack of visible ears and the combination of a pair of crab-like mandibles and something that vaguely resembled a butterfly proboscis that seemed to be pasted onto the head where the mouth would've been. The thing's entire body was a deep shade of blue, its skin resembling a mix between reptilian scales and insectile exoskeleton. It was dressed – if you could call it that – in what looked like the tattered remains of a button-down shirt and jeans that had exploded outward at the cuffs to accommodate the creature's double feet, two protruding from the end of each leg like some kind of weird Siamese twin. Six hooked, barbed toes protruded from each of the alien's four feet; a seventh claw protruded from the leg at approximately the spot where a human ankle would be, this one gleaming in the light like a straight razor and tapping on the floor like the velociraptors from _Jurassic Park_.

But the arms were the part that Adam knew he'd be catching glimpses of around dark corners for the next few decades. They were long, gangly, tentacle-like appendages that looked jointless but moved as though they had bones and nearly reached the floor. At the end of each one was a huge, misshapen lump of flesh that was apparently a hand, but there seemed to be no fingers or any movable extremities attached to it. What it did have protruding from it was a cluster of several jagged, deadly looking claws almost a foot long that scraped gently on the floor. Suddenly, as Adam watched in breathless horror, the claws began to move, gliding across the surface of the deformed hand like bamboo reeds being moved through water from underneath, until they were drawn as tightly together as possible, forming solid spears at the ends of each of the thing's arms. The alien cocked its head at them for a moment, as though it was contemplating what to do about them. Then it raised its arms, bent its knees (some far off part of Adam's mind was able to notice that they bent backwards) – and attacked.

Adam hadn't moved since he had landed on the floor of Kim's bedroom, and thus he was still kneeling in the middle of the room with one arm flung out to the side as the thing charged at him, its arm-spears raised in preparation for the kill. At the last possible second, Adam lowered his hands to the floor, brought his feet together and leapt into the air, soaring over the creature's head. As he went over, Adam got a glimpse of Kim helping Aisha down into the room, the two of them flipped surreally upside down. As it passed beneath him, the alien swung one of its spear claw tentacles straight up in an attempt to bisect him, but Adam was ready. He caught the tightly bunched cluster of claws in both hands, completed a front flip to land on his feet just behind the creature, and flung the claw forward with every ounce of strength he could muster. The alien was snapped back from Kim and Aisha like it was attached to a giant bungee cord; Adam thrust the claws toward the ground in front of him as hard as he could, feeling the creature's weight whipped forward over his head. Just as he felt the slight wave of air from the thing passing over him, Adam let go to send the creature crashing through the wall in front of him and tumbling down the stairs. He turned to Kim and Aisha, who were already hurrying to back him up, even in their powerless state.

"Get your coins and get your asses back here. Go!" He called to them as he moved to follow the alien. The two girls scrambled down the hallway, both disappearing into different rooms, as Adam approached the top of the stairs. "You want me, you blue piece of shit?" He muttered under his breath. "Come and get me."

* * *

**Angel Grove High School Grounds  
****7:20 PM**

Trini shot a glance over one shoulder, ducking instinctively as another grapefruit-sized sphere of glowing red energy went zipping over her head and buried itself in the grass just ahead of her. She and Rocky sprinted across the completely open soccer field toward the line of ruined houses beyond, swerving erratically toward and away from each other as randomly as possible in a desperate attempt to avoid the constant stream of enemy fire that came barreling towards them from the high school.

Shielding her eyes from the cascade of uprooted dirt that rained down from the impact site, Trini dug a foot into the grass and shot off at a different angle, fists and knees pumping as she flew across the open land, a thin sheen of sweat beginning to form on her forehead. The wind whipped by in her ears, adding a thrumming backdrop to the pounding of her heart; the frantic intensity of her movements tossed strands of her hair across her face and into her mouth and eyes. Trini feigned left and dashed to the right, feeling a brief rush of heat as yet another energy blast passed within inches of her shoulders. Rocky suddenly appeared in her peripheral vision and Trini grabbed his shoulder and shoved him ahead of her, her heart leaping into her throat for a second at the stumble he took as she threw him forward. The young Hispanic man went to one knee, dug his fingers into the ground and vaulted back to his feet, shooting Trini a death glare as he leapt out of her path and resumed his pace, turning to shout at her over his shoulder.

"The fuck was that for?"

"Tell you what," Trini shot back viciously, twisting to one side to allow an energy ball to pass harmlessly by. "You come up with a worse time to morph in the next 24 hours and I'll take it back."

"If both of us are still alive in 24 hours," Rocky panted, slowing up just enough so that they were running next to each other. "It'll be because I morphed when I did. You should be fucking _thanking_ me. Hey, dugout!"

Rocky grabbed Trini's arm and yanked her to the right, leaping over a low-flying energy blast as he charged toward the baseball diamond a few yards away. The glowing green ball passed harmlessly under Rocky's feet and disappeared into the ground off to his left; Trini had only the briefest of moments to wonder why it didn't carve out a divot as it made contact with the earth before they were suddenly running over dirt and chalk. The hard surface of the infield kicked up a cloud of dust behind them as they sprinted toward the dugout. As they neared the covered, slightly below ground structure, Rocky and Trini dropped into nearly identical foot-first baseball slides, ducking under the barrage of energy balls as they soared over the lip of the dugout and landed on the bench.

"OK," Trini muttered as they brushed themselves off and leaned against the lip of the embankment to catch their breath. "What now?"

By the time she'd turned back to Rocky, he was already halfway morphed again and was drawing his blaster. "This." Curling one hand around the edge of the dugout's roof, Rocky pulled himself up, twisted his body, wrapped his arm around the side and began firing back toward the school before the armor had even covered him completely. Almost immediately the onslaught of enemy fire tapered off to nothing as their opponents presumably took cover. Trini groaned and grabbed Rocky's leg, tugging him back behind the enclosure.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She practically shouted into his face.

He cocked his head at her. "Did you forget the meaning of 'covering fire' after two years in Switzerland? I was distracting them so you could get to your coin."

"Alone. Unarmed. For another half a mile. Through the bombed-out ruins of a conquered city and a welcoming committee of a few thousand extremely hostile aliens we know nothing about. Right. Us splitting up now is fucking genius."

Rocky heaved an exaggerated sigh and shoved his blaster back into the holster. "Would you rather I carry you the rest of the way? Becau- shit!" Rocky leapt forward, tackling Trini to the ground as the alien that had appeared from behind the other side of the dugout whipped its clawed tentacle toward her unprotected back. He felt the grotesque lump of flesh that passed for the creature's hand brush across his shoulder blades before the lethal claws buried themselves an inch deep in the concrete wall behind him. Twisting himself in midair, Rocky flicked his wrist and felt his fingers close around the hilt of the sword that appeared there; he swung the weapon in a vicious upward arc and let the momentum of his body spinning provide additional power. The blade made contact with the tentacle at the exact instant Rocky felt his tailbone smack into the floor between Trini's thighs.

The blade of Rocky's sword cut through the exposed tentacle with surprising ease, severing it neatly at a point about three feet from the shoulder. A shower of dark red blood, so red it was almost black, rained down on them, and Rocky found himself instinctively covering his face even though his armor was resistant to every toxin or chemical weapon in the known universe. The detached limb bounced off his feet as it flopped to the floor; for a moment there was absolute silence, and Rocky thought the thing might have retreated. But the earsplitting shriek of pain and unmistakable rage that erupted from behind him a second later jarred him back to the harsh reality. He shot back to his feet, readying his sword in case the thing attacked again, and suddenly got a good look at it for the first time. The absurd grotesqueness of the thing made his stomach churn; he had to actively force down a mouthful of bile at the sight. The thing looked like Jeff Goldblum from _The Fly_ had taken a break in mid-transformation to forcibly mate with a member of the Blue Man Group. As Rocky watched in morbid fascination, the thing curled its severed limb in towards its chest and moved slowly toward him, tapping its remaining tentacle on the concrete floor.

"Trini, get behind me," he muttered under his breath. "This thing looks pissed."

"You can tell what this thing's _pissed_ face looks like?" Trini whispered, scurrying behind him. "It just looks hungry to me."

That was when Rocky made a major mistake. As Trini crawled hurriedly across the floor, he followed her with his head to make sure she got behind him safely. It was only when she looked up and recoiled in shock that he whipped his head around in time to see the alien's other clawed tentacle heading straight toward his face.

Grunting in surprise, Rocky dropped to one knee and caught the alien's tentacle in both hands, just below the lump of flesh at the end, letting his sword clatter to the floor beside him; he thought he heard Trini grab it and pull it toward herself, its metal blade scraping along the concrete. The alien began to thrash violently in his grip, the tentacle whipping his upper body back and forth as he fought to keep it relatively still. Suddenly, the pull on the arm was abruptly released; Rocky didn't even realize the tentacle had been severed until he was sitting on the floor, jaw rattling.

Trini stood over the disembodied limb, Rocky's sword clashed in both her hands, her face and torso drenched in the alien's thick, dark blood. Her usually serene features bore a look of terrifying anger; as Rocky got to his feet, she let out a breath and gingerly wiped a bit of blood off her forehead.

"I think you got him," he said softly. She looked up at him and almost replied, but a sound from behind her drew both of their attention. Seemingly undeterred by the loss of two of its limbs, their attacker squared its shoulders and begun to advance on them, letting the bleeding stumps of its tentacles droop lifelessly by its sides. Not even looking shaky on its feet, the thing moved slowly but inexorably forward, fixing its glowing compound gaze on Rocky's face.

"Fucker gets points for persistence," Rocky muttered, lowering himself into a defensive posture. "Not winning any awards for intelligence, but nobody's perfect."

He had barely finished the sentence when the alien suddenly pulled back its tentacles and drew _another pair of arms_ out of two folds of skin on either side of its torso, unfolding them as if from nowhere. Unlike the other two limbs, these arms appeared identical to human arms, minus the bright blue tint; one of the hands clasped some kind of weapon, which the creature now raised to aim at Rocky's face.

Without warning, the thing fired, illuminating the cramped space with a flash of green light. Rocky didn't even have time to curse in shock; he dove forward, ducking under the ball of energy that erupted from the barrel of the creature's weapon. The moment his hands hit the floor, he tucked his chin, pulled his knees into his chest and somersaulted toward the alien, concentrating on keeping his palms pressed flat on the floor. As soon as it felt like he wouldn't be able to hold them down any longer, he pushed off the floor with both hands, shot his legs out and kicked the weapon out of the creature's hands, sending it flying over Rocky's head.

The creature reacted quickly – it grabbed one of Rocky's ankles in midair and whipped him around, slamming his back into the wall hard enough to leave a crater six inches deep in the concrete. Dazed by the blow, Rocky was barely able to drop out of the way of the vicious punch the thing aimed at him; he felt the wall shake behind him with the force of the impact. Grunting with pain, Rocky got his feet under him and threw a fist straight up into the creature's arm where the elbow would be, causing a very satisfying _snap_. The alien made another shriek of pain or anger and swung its other fist at him, but Rocky grabbed it, spun around, flipped the alien over his shoulder and brought the heel of his boot down hard on its exposed neck, his armored boot crushing flesh and shattering bone until the head was almost completely severed.

"And stay down, bitch," Rocky said, tossing the alien's limp arm back onto its body. He rolled his shoulders and turned to regroup with Trini, only to jump back at the sight of a second alien who stood only a few feet away and closing fast. Before he could even prepare for the attack, however, the alien's head was enveloped by a ball of the same green energy that had been fired at him. When the ball had passed, the thing's head was gone, as though it hadn't ever had one.

As the dead alien crumpled to the floor next to its partner, Rocky turned and saw Trini, her clothes tattered and torn, her face coated almost savagely with the dark alien blood, holding the first alien's smoking weapon in both hands.

"Thanks," he said, gathering up his sword. She lowered the weapon and nodded, making no effort to wipe the blood off her face.

"You know all that crap I'm always saying about how we shouldn't kill things all the time?" Trini said as they climbed out of the dugout and continued on. "How we should try to find nonlethal, even nonviolent solutions to the problems we're trying to solve?"

"Yeah," Rocky replied, demorphing as he spoke. Trini reached behind her and tucked the aliens' weapon into the back of her pants.

"Yeah," she continued. "About that. I'm full of shit." Rocky raised an eyebrow and Trini smirked cynically in reply. "I say it's time we got lethal."


End file.
